Richard J. Watson

Richard J. Watson is an icon in the Philadelphia art world. He is a graduate of Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (1968), has taught at his alma mater, and has served in the Exhibitions Department at the African American Museum in Philadelphia since the 1980s. He has been exhibiting his work for decades, and has an extensive bibliography. His work is held in the Petrucci Family Foundation Collection of African American Art; the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; the Uniworld Corporation; Sony; the Federal Reserve Bank; the City of Philadelphia; Sprint; the Church of the Advocate; the poet Dr. Sonia Sanchez; and the Woodmere Museum of Art, among many others.

"Most of my works are supported by memories of the past and suggested realities. Issues of social politics, ancestral references, and astral projectgsions are presented with fragmented elements of "real life" collaged and collapsed, as dreams are prone to do. If connections are made, all the better.  I feel that life should remind us of our dreams." - Richard J. Watson

Courtesy of Susanna W. Gold, Ph.D.