Richard Farrell
Bio
Richard Farrell is a painter, writer, digital artist, and draftsman based in Boston, Massachusetts. His work draws on scholars of comparative mythology, religious upbringing, observational humor, and contemporary culture. Farrell utilizes and subverts his background in children’s book illustration to create work that suggests surreptitious or incomplete narratives. In his figurative paintings and drawings, he explores relationships between religion and childhood, ego and futility, and the supernatural and the mundane. He received his Master of Fine Arts from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts in 2025.
Artist Statement
Contemporary society fixates on the idea of a catastrophic apocalypse, a whirlwind of fire that will quickly and messily stamp out all of existence. However, this definition overlooks a more nuanced interpretation of the term, one that positions humans as active participants in the event. The word "apocalypse" originates from the Greek apokalýptein, meaning "to uncover." My practice of drawing, painting, and writing reflects this interpretation, exploring the apocalypse as the revelation of a more subtle systemic disintegration and transformation of our world.
I am a product of the suburbs, a setting often perceived as spiritually barren. Yet, within this environment, I see an emergent and tangible form of American spirituality, one rooted in outdated mythological notions of exclusivity, the American Dream, masculinity, and heroism. These concepts—and the political effects they perpetuate—are deeply entrenched in apocalyptic fears.
My multimedia practice encapsulates informal, mindless ephemera, doodles, poetry, illustrative art, vignettes, humor, ancient cross-cultural mythologies, internet culture, and political discourse. The ambivalence, and ambiguity of the subject matter mirror the discordance of contemporary mythology and the desperation to imbue everyday or unimportant subjects with spiritual significance. Like the more nuanced, insidious interpretation of our apocalypse, a multitude of narratives are uncovered simultaneously, left unresolved and uneasy.
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