2013-11-25 #40, Edmonton

Richard Tosczak is a Belgian-born, Edmonton-based figurative sculptor. He studied philosophy and modernist sculpture, working in steel, at the University of Alberta where a number of the professors had a strong affiliation with Anthony Caro and Clement Greenberg. Richard pursued further artistic training in the Loire Valley with Martine Vaugel, first director of figurative sculpture at the New York Academy of Art. Richard’s creative work is rooted in the expressiveness of the human form. In his current practice he uses quick pen and ink figure studies as source material for sculptures and larger works on canvas. In this mode of exploration, sculptures are modeled exclusively from a single drawing and canvases are layered with images from one or more figure drawings. This way of working combines the rigorous formalism of his early training, observation, and the figurative vocabulary he continues to develop.