KENT RICH

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This broadside was donated to West Hills Middle School (Jordan School District).

To visit the artist's website click here. See the Artist's statement and bio below this image.

Kent Rich is a southwestern artist who lives in Salt Lake City, Utah. He has studied watercolor with Harold "Pete" Peterson, oil painting with Bonnie Posselli and photography with Fred Wright, John Schaefer, John Telford, Roger Newbold and the internationally known landscape photographer Dr. Elliott Porter. He has also studied with the noted American artist Robert Ault in Topeka, Kansas at the Washurn University. Kent has a B.A. Honors degree and a Masters degree in Social Work from the University of Utah. He is also a psychotherapist and a graduate of the Karl Menninger School of Psychiatry in Topeka, Kansas. Kent's photographs, ink drawings, watercolors, and pastels have received honors. Kent's work is included in the collections of the Springville Museum of Art, Brigham City Art Museum, Salt Lake Art Center, Utah Museum of fme Art, and Telluride Jazz Celebration.

His photography has been exhibited in the Utah State Traveling Exhibit. His photograph, "Fast Eddie" won a national award from the Center for Creative Photography in Tuscon and the Arizona State University Museum of Art's Photography Exhibit. In addition, he received a grant from tlie Nora Eccles Foundation for a portfolio including photography, ink drawings, and watercolors representing community values reflected through the Brigham City Peach Days Festival. Kent received a grant from the Joseph Rosenblatt family and the Salt Lake Art Center for a portfolio of ten important Utah artists. Working Artists, exhibited at the Salt Lake Art Center. In 1997, Kent's pastel, "The Virgin River" was included in the catalog of the Springville Museum's Spring Salon. Six of Kent's photographs on Utah artists was published in Robert S. Olpin, William C. Seifrit, and Vem G. Swanson's book. Artists of Utah Gibbs Smith Publisher, Salt Lake City, 1999. In the same book a biography of Kent Rich was included. In 1998 and 1999 the internationally noted Telluride Jazz Celebration appointed Kent their official artist. He created two pastels that were made into the Celebration's posters for those years. Those posters have sold to patrons throughout the world. As part of the 1999 festival, Kent created a portfolio of drawings of the Jazz artists. The portfolio was shown in a solo show at the Springville Museum in 2000 along with a video on Kent's Telluride work.

The 1998 solo show of Kent's pastels of Telluride, Colorado at the EllinofT Gallery was highly successful. In that year Amy Conger, noted art historian formerly of the Chicago Institute of Art and the Center for Creative Photography, commissioned two pastels. The rock music disc jockey, Dr. Dimento, held a radio show featuring Kent Rich at KATO Radio Station in Telluride. He later purchased some drawings. The famous jazz trumpeter, James Moody bought Kent's work. In 1999 Stanley Terrintine, the jazz saxaphonist, purchased work. Dick Pike, the New York jazz marimbaphonist, purchased the study pastel for the Celebration poster. Kent's solo shows at the Ellinoff Gallery of his pastels and oils were held in 19996, 1997, and 1998. Art collectors in New York City, Atlanta, Santa Fe, Scottsdale, San Francisco, and New Jersey have acquired Kent's work.

As an expressionist, Kent works in the natural environment and in urban centers of the Southwest. Although he is a "plein air" artist, he is not interested in recording the realistic vision and natural light of the landscape found in impressionistic works of art. Paul Stewart of the Apropos Fine Art Gallery wrote, "Kent's vision is personal. His reactions, and social messages come from his inner self and his own creative vision." Dave Gagon, Deseret News art critic stated, "Kent's strength is in his spontaneity and color." The Denver Post photographed Kent in Downtown Denver during a below zero winter day. A large photograph appeared on the front page. The article celebrated Kent's persistence and ability to capture the essence of the urban landscape. Vem Swanson, the director of the Springville Art Museum states, "Kent's strength is in color, spontaneity and energy. Finally we have a happy expressionist."

Kent is also a violinist, psychotherapist, and art historian. His wife, Judith Wendel Ricli is a violinist with the Utah Symphony. They have three children - Christine, Janelle and Steven and two dogs - Taffus and Twinkle. Kent's other interests are bicycling, swimming, hiking, and meditation. He has written about Utah artists Howell Rosenbaum and Mahonri Young for the Brigham City and Springville Art Museums. He is a collector of regional Utah art.