Dream Sequence
Richard Cleaver
January 22 - March 2, 2002

Dreams are images and ideas occurring in stages of sleep. Daydreams: abstracted musings of wild fancy or hope or anything extremely beautiful, fine and pleasing. By creating jewel-like sculpture in delightful combinations of embellished hand built ceramic Richard Cleaver shares his own erroneous perceptions of reality. He combines significant respect for history, superb craftsmanship and keen wit in work that is at once monumental and minute, personal and universal, and always concerned with the intrinsic beauty of illusions.

Cleaver displays remarkable experience and ability as sculptor, painter, draftsman, designer, and visionary. The depth and breadth of his creative heritage is apparent and serious: interpretations and modern examples of classic forms, figures and colors influenced by miniatures, textiles, wildlife, medieval and contemporary religious relics, Renaissance and Baroque. Yet, imagination, innovation, ostensible improvisation, sensuality, humor, romantic and formal concern is uniquely Cleaver's.

Those fortunate enough to collect his work are drawn to Richard Cleaver's ability to mesmerize. She had followed the progress of his work for many years, and composer/producer Lorraine Whittlesey of Baltimore recently acquired the first work in the Dream Sequence series. (not in show) Ms. Whittlesey was "drawn to the stunning details and unbelievable care that is exhibited on so many levels...from the carving, beading, shapes and proportion--the work embodies the cleansing ability of visual art..." and ultimately the humanity of the maker. In addition, Ms. Whittlesey also appreciates the element of surprise that exists in Cleaver's work, "The quality of a very good classic artist is the ability to constantly engage, just when you think you know the piece and you've seen it all there is always something else to find and muse upon."

The venerable Baltimore artist Joan Erbe also "adores Rick's work especially with the architectural elements," like Lorraine Whittlesey she believes the sculptures are witty and "...sneaky...you have to keep looking to see everything and still you can't find it all." Ms. Erbe's late husband George Udell bought the work for Joan at an early solo exhibition in Washington, "...it's a prince or a king inside a tabernacle, religious and irreverent and I just love it even after all this time. "Erbe admires Cleaver's compositional groupings, his figures flow and he has a "marvelous" ability with layers of brilliant colors and "desired shades." They are like three-dimensional illuminated manuscripts decorated with brilliant designs and jewels. "They're like big jewels and I'd love to wear them."

Dreaming is to invent and concoct. It is imagination aroused looking for understanding. Richard Cleaver creates intricate worlds, fantasy laced with expressive juxtapositions offering an opportunity to discover what is real and what is conjured.

Diane DiSalvo
January 2002

All work is hand-built ceramic, oil paint and mixed material

Richard Cleaver

Solo Exhibitions

• Dream Sequence, Villa Julie College Gallery, Stevenson, MD 2002
• Scenes From Inside Bernice Steinbaum Gallery Miami, Fl 2000
• Biographical Icons Steinbaum Krauss Gallery, NY 1998
• Open Closets Steinbaum Krauss Gallery, NY 1996
• Public Histories, Private Lives Goucher College, Baltimore 1995
• Paris-New York-Kent, Kent, CT 1994
• Susquehanna Art Museum, Harrisburg, PA 1993
• Contemporary Icons, Franz Bader Gallery, Washington, DC 1993
• Arlington Art Center, Arlington, VA 1993
• Franz Bader Gallery, Washington, DC 1992
• Knight Gomez Gallery, Baltimore 1992, 1991

Selected Group Exhibitions

• Obsession Goucher College, Baltimore 2000
• Snapshot Contemporary Museum, Baltimore 2000
• Blurring Boundaries: Objects in Craft Media from the Collection Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE 1999
• Artscape Baltimore, 1999, 1996, 1993
• Updating Ceremonial Objects: A Cup for Miriam Nathan D
• Rosen Gallery, Boca Raton, Fl 1999
• All the World's a Stage: Mixed Media Dioramas by Tom Duncan and Richard Cleaver, The Noyes Museum, Oceanville, NJ
• Delaware Biennial, Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE 1998
• Selections from Soho-Steinbaum Krauss Gallery Artists, Fort Lewis College Durango, CO 1998
• Contemporary American Ceramics Loveland Museum, Loveland, CO 1997
• Critics Residency Program, Maryland Art Place, Baltimore
• Art Sites Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC 1996
• Out of the Fire The St. Paul Companies, Minneapolis, MN 1995
• The Dog as Symbol and Metaphor Galerie Francoise, Brooklandville, MD 1995
• Soul Mates University of Maryland, College Park, MD 1995
• Encierro: Captured Space International Sculpture Center, Washington, DC 1990
• Obsessive Objects School 33 Art Center Baltimore 1988
• Clay National Erie Art Museum, Erie, PA 1985-85 (traveling exhibition)
• Clay Art in the Eighties: Clay National Erie Art Museum, Erie, PA 1983

Selected Public and Private Collections

• Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE
• Erie Art Museum, Erie, PA
• Sallie Mae Loan Corporation, Washington, DC
• Jacques Kaplan Collection, Kent, CT
• Stephen Lorch Collection, Brookline, MA
• The St. Paul Companies, St. Paul, MN
• Dain Rauscher Inc, Minneapolis, MN
• Bernice Steinbaum Collection NY

Grants and Awards

• Individual Artist Grant Maryland State Arts Council, 1999,1995,1992
• Crafts Fellowship National Endowment for the Arts, 1994
• Visiting Artist Delaware Art Museum 1998, Baltimore Museum of Art 1996-98, Cleveland Institute of Art 1997
• Maryland Institute College of Art 1997-98

Education

• University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI M.A. 1980
• Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore B.F.A. 1977