Michele Riche 

Bio:

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Michele Riche is a Connecticut-based representational painter working primarily in oil on canvas. She grew up in Connecticut and later moved to New York City, where she worked in non profit development while raising a daughter.

Riche returned to painting through formal study at the School of Visual Arts, where she focused on oil painting and developed her practice through sustained mentorship. She has participated in artist salons and served as Director of the Yellow Chair Salon, supporting dialogue and community among practicing artists.

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Riche’s work has been exhibited at institutions including the Mattatuck Museum, where she received Best in Show at the Mixmaster at The Matt exhibition in 2019 and presented a solo exhibition later that year. Her work is held in private collections internationally. She lives and works in Connecticut.

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Artist Statement:

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I make representational oil paintings of familiar imagery to explore themes of identity and displacement. My pared back compositions and varied methods of paint application build an underlying psychological narrative. By focusing on individual subjects, along with cropping, gesture, and shadow, I leave parts of the painting unresolved, allowing solitude and quiet tension to emerge.

 

I am drawn to oil paint for its flexibility and the richness of its color and texture. Building up the surface, often painting over previous work and sanding back sections, allows traces of earlier layers to remain visible. By revealing some parts of the painting and holding others back, I create a sense of curiosity through contrast.

 

The paintings come from personal experience, using familiar objects as their starting point. By limiting forms and focusing on texture and shadow, I invite the viewer to linger with what is visible, layered, and partially hidden.

 

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CV:

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SOLO EXHIBITIONS:

2025  Illuminations of Light, TheMuse Art House, Closter, NJ

2019  Intimate Observer, Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury, CT

 

SELECT GROUP EXHIBITIONS:

2025  Prints, Unique & Multiple, Minor Memorial Library, Roxbury, CT

          Flash, Anonymous Society Gallery, Redding, CT

          Tiny Acts, G-Town Arts, Georgetown, CT

          Remnants and Relics, Anonymous Society Gallery, Redding, CT

          Re-Figured, G-Town Arts, Georgetown, CT

          Rising Day, Anonymous Society Gallery, Redding, CT

2024  In The Room 37: Attendants, Attendance, Centotto, Online

          Summer Juried Exhibition, Blue Mountain Gallery, New York, NY

          Nor’Easter, New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT

          Support Through Assembly, Anonymous Society Gallery, Redding, CT

2023  Why Do You Look That Way?, M.David&Co., Brooklyn, NY

          Artsy Foundations Fair, M.David&Co, online

          A*ONE, Silvermine Gallery, New Canaan, CT

          Far & Wide, Woodstock Artists Assoc. & Museum, Woodstock, NY

          Juried Members Show, Ridgefield Guild of Artists, Ridgefield, CT (3rd prize)

          National Prize Show, Cambridge Art Association, Cambridge, MAt

2022  105th Annual Juried Exhibition, Greenwich Art Society, Greenwich, CT

          Go Figure, Jaffrey Civic Center, Jaffrey, NH

          Faces and Figures, Loft Artists Association, Stamford, CT

          MIXMASTER @TheMATT, Mattatuck Museum, MIXMASTER @TheMATT, Waterbury, CT

2021  Benefit Exhibition, Bridgette Mayer Gallery, Philadelphia, PA 

2020  Contemporary Realism, Mills Pond Gallery, Saint James, NY 

          Congruence,  I Like Your Work Podcast, Online Exhibition

          As You Are, Dacia Gallery, New York, NY

2019  MIXMASTER @TheMATT, Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury, CT (1st prize)

          Exhibition, Dacia Gallery, New York, NY,  

          Figurative Dialect, Novado Gallery, Jersey City, NJ

          Made In New York, Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center, Auburn, NY

          A*ONE, Silvermine Gallery, New Canaan, CT

 

AWARDS:

2023  Ridgefield Guild of Artists, Ridgefield, CT, 3rd prize

2021  Artexpo New York, New York, NY, Spotlight Award recipient

2019  Mattatuck Museum, MIXMASTER @TheMATT, Waterbury, CT, 1st Prize

 

RESIDENCIES & PROGRAMS:

2025   Edgewood Farms at Castle HIl Residency, Truro, MA

2024 - Present  Founder of Plan B Crit Group

2021- 2024   Michael David’s Yellow Chair Salon Virtual Residency program 

2021 - 2024  Director, Yellow Chair Salon

 

EDUCATION:

1990   St. Lawrence University, Bachelor of Arts, Fine Arts and French

2008 - 2011 School of Visual Arts, New York, NY, Oil Painting

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