Rico Gatson

Rico Gatson (b. 1966, Augusta, GA) is a Brooklyn-based artist whose sculpture, painting, video, and public art projects explore themes of history, identity, popular culture, and spirituality. For over two decades, Rico Gatson has been celebrated for his vibrant, colorful, and layered artworks. Inspired by significant moments in African American history and politics, his oeuvre includes images of protests, longstanding injustices, and dynamic abstract geometries that celebrate Pan-Africanist aesthetics and Black cultural and political figures.

Soldier I

Soldier I is a 2-run, 2-color photogravure / direct gravure merging historical documentation with contemporary intervention, creating a layered narrative of Black soldiers’ overlooked contributions to the US Civil War. The subject of Soldier I is a striking portrait from the Liljenquist Family Collection at the Library of Congress. The original sixth-plate tintype, dating from 1863 to 1865, captures an unidentified Black soldier, dressed in a Union uniform and armed with a bayoneted musket. This historic image, already rich with significance, is reinterpreted through Gatson’s hand-drawn direct gravure overlay of green brush strokes. By ensuring the soldier’s face remains fully visible, Gatson honors the subject’s presence, reclaiming the dignity and agency often stripped from Black figures in historical imagery.

Soldier II

Gatson’s Soldier II merges historical portraiture with bold abstraction, creating a striking dialogue between past and present. This 3-run, 3-color photogravure / direct gravure with spit bite aquatint reimagines an 1864 albumen print of Sergeant Charles English of the 108th U.S. Colored Troops Infantry Regiment, sourced from the Liljenquist Family Collection in the Library of Congress. The direct gravure overlays the soldier’s image with vibrant yellow bands and a cosmic burst of magenta, symbolizing energy and transcendence. Gatson’s fusion of history and abstraction reclaims Black military narratives, making Soldier II both a tribute and a powerful act of remembrance.

Untitled (AM-FAM)

Gatson’s 2024 collaboration with Graphicstudio, Untitled (AM-FAM), is an intricate eight-run screenprint. The central image was derived from a quarter-plate ambrotype in the Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Photographs at the Library of Congress. This evocative background, dated between 1863 and 1865, features an unidentified African American soldier wearing a Union uniform with his wife and two daughters. Overlaying this historical portrait is a striking screenprinted flag, originally featured in Gatson’s renowned “Flag Paintings,” representing a more inclusive vision of the American flag. Using screenprinting, Gatson achieved highly saturated and flat colors paired with razor-sharp geometry complimenting the structure and vibrant color of the original flag painting.

Gatson's work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at venues such as The Studio Museum in Harlem, NY; The Whitney Museum of American Art, NY; The Essl Museum, Vienna, Austria; and The Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. In 2019, Gatson completed an important commission for New York’s Metropolitan Transit Authority, titled Beacons, consisting of eight permanent large-scale mosaics of prominent Black figures installed in the 167th Street Subway station in the Bronx. His work is also featured in the permanent collections of The Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Studio Museum in Harlem, The Denver Art Museum, The Cheekwood Museum, The Kempner Museum, and The Yale University Art Gallery. 

 

Further Resources

Artist's Page: Miles McEnery Gallery

USF Contemporary Art Museum 2023 Solo Exhibition: Rico Gatson: Visible Time

 

Printmaking + Sculpture Terms

Printmaking Glossary

Sculpture Glossary

Sales

For sales, or more information about an edition, please contact Graphicstudio at (813) 974-3503 or gsoffice@usf.edu.

Copyright + Reproduction

Images of the artwork are jointly owned by the artist and Graphicstudio. Reproduction of any kind including electronic media must be expressly approved by Graphicstudio.