- May 18, 2024
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The Gargiulo Art Foundation named painter Richard Schreiner its 2012 Flagler County Artist of the Year. The artist, who died in July, was an expressive figurative artist in Flagler County.
His paintings represent the intensely personal vision of an artist concerned with human consciousness.
“He had a way of painting from a sense of anxiety, and I think you feel that in his work,” said J.J. Graham, curator of Hollingsworth Gallery. “I think he was very aware of the human condition. There was so much potential for beauty in his work, but he couldn’t embrace that sometimes. He wanted to expose the ugly thing in human nature.”
Born in Queens, N.Y., Schreiner studied at Buffalo State and Yale University, Yale University School of Art and Columbia University.
Before moving to Florida, Schreiner had exhibited mainly in Long Island. He had solo exhibits at the Phoenix Gallery, in New York City, and the former Discovery Gallery, on Long Island. He was a featured artist with “Art and the Law,” presented by the West Publishing Company. He also worked as a sketch artist for the New Haven Police Department.
In Palm Coast, he found a home at SECCA Studios at Hollingsworth Gallery, where he shared a studio with Graham for some time. He was featured in several shows at the gallery, including a 115-piece retrospecitve in June.
Schreiner’s used his art to express empathy in situations in life. For him, the canvas was a place to change the world through a state of helplessness.
“The canvas was his way of shaking his fist at the world,” Graham said.
Hollingsworth will play host to a show honoring Schreiner as Artist of the Year for the month of November. Not only will the show feature paintings, but it will also feature drawings and etchings, some of which have never been showed before.
For Graham, hosting the Gargiulo Art Foundation is an opportunity to honor the life works of a role model.
“He was a very special person, and I connected to him from the moment he came in the gallery,” said Graham “He often referred to me as his art son, which I found very flattering. It’s really kind of hard for me to talk about him in the past tense; I’m still dealing with his death. I think that I owe it to him to keep him alive through his work.”
The show is an opportunity for residents to see some of the work Schreiner has left behind as well as work his friends have created for him, which will also be showed in the gallery at the same time.
“I just think that for the community as a whole, whether they can really grasp the nature of his work or not, it’s an opportunity to come and see that this town has these incredible, talented people,” Graham said.
The opening reception will be 6 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 10, at Hollingsworth Gallery, 160 Cypress Point Parkway, Suites 209B and 210B.
