“My work can be understood through the mind, but it is best felt with the heart, experienced through the emotions, recognized as a manifestation of the spiritual that is born on the picture plane. The ambiguity of the image is central to my expression of life in art.”

— Ford Crull

“It is terrifying to paint. When you start out, you are faced with this great unknown. And you think, am I ever going to paint again?  Yet, as you work, it starts to formulate itself. Ultimately every work really just decides itself. I love to paint. I love the smell of paint (oil) and the way it does different things depending on how you apply it. I love how if you use a lot of turpentine, it forms these rivulets like streams in the desert. Acrylics just can’t match the intensity or viscosity of oils. In early days, I painted landscapes and portraits, but I tried to infuse them with my own nomenclature. The colors, brushstrokes, and marks that I put on a canvas transfigure into a profound sensibility that I cannot deal with in any other way.  And color is a way of expressing my emotions, and the way it is planted in my works helps tell the story.

When I was a boy I drew incessantly.  I had sheets of paper roughly 10 by 15 inches, and I covered them with Civil War soldiers. Literally hundreds of them, each drawn with the same delicacy as if they were alive. Later I advanced to WW2, with German soldiers attacking the well-meaning but hapless British, grey against ochre, tanks and explosions, and beautiful landscapes where it happened.

As I became older, I wondered what it was that had so intrigued me with these war scenarios. I became fascinated with the symbols, icons and pictograms that were behind these historic conflicts. They had a substance and meaning for me that far outweighed their prescribed meaning.  A cross meant Christianity, but in the films of Sergei Eisenstein, there was a distinction between the Teutonic knights with their iron helmets invading the Russian orthodox warriors to the east. A cross could mean many things, we bow down before a cross, but are repulsed by a swastika. Yet they are related. If you cut the corners of a circle with a cross bisecting it, an early Christian icon, it becomes a Sulfot cross, and then a swastika. In the hands of the Nazis, a symbol of profound evil.

Symbols have an intrinsic power; a drama and mystery that fascinates me. I became bewitched with how symbols invade and influence what we believe and think about who we are. This sensibility became the fodder for my painting.

What makes painting so interesting to me is that there are multiple realities, multiple interpretations possible. What gives the painting a life of its own is that everyone is seeing something different based on their own experience, that way, to the viewer, the painting has a continued life. Some paintings will just resonate with you, when the symbols and pictograms, and icons have this rich elegance, the piece works. It means that the symbols and icons we are subject to daily, vastly influence our lives in a way we are totally unconscious of. And that is what has importance for me. It determines and manifests in our lives and in my work an unconsciousness that I am not cognizant of in my normal day-to-day existence. This is where my art stems from. It is subtle but real, and infects me like a disease. I try to find why and how these symbols and icons have such a powerful and meaningful reality in my life.

How do we see ourselves in any kind of personal integrity, how do we form a sense of Self and Identity without constantly feeling that it is being ebbed out into the vast…? Painting, for me, is a way of developing one’s own iconography, a personal metaphorical shield.

That is why I paint.”

EDUCATION:
B.F.A. Painting, University of Washington, Seattle, WA

SOLO EXHIBITIONS: 

2023
Georges Berges Gallery, New York
2021
Tribeca Art Space, NYC, 10007
Mosaic Art Space, Long Island City,, NY

2022

Happy Hour Gallery/Mazlish Gallery, Watermill, NY

2019
Ford Crull ,Georges Berges Gallery, New York, NY
Zhou Brothers Art Center, ”VITALITY RISING”, Chicago
2018
Ober Gallery, Kent, Conn. “ Then and Now”
Andria Friesen Gallery, Sun Valley , ID
Cross Contemporary ART, Saugerties, NY “The Figurative Work” 1974 – 2018
2017
Abmeyer Wood Gallery, “A New Lexicon” Seattle WA
2016
Cross Contemporary ART, Saugerties, NY
2015
Ober Gallery, Kent, CT
Carter Burden Gallery, New York
2014
Cross Contemporary ART, Saugerties, NY
2013
Creon Gallery, New York
Abmeyer Wood Gallery, Seattle, WA
2012
Andria Friesen Gallery, Sun Valley , ID
2011
Abmeyer Wood Gallery, Seattle, WA
Rob Ober Gallery, Kent, CT
2010
Rachel Sheng Gallery, Shanghai, China
Bund 1919, Shanghai, China
2009
Andria Friesen Gallery, “Le Salon de F. Crull” Sun Valley, ID
2007
Howard Scott Gallery, “Now and Then” New York, NY
2005
Andria Friesen Gallery, “Favela” Seattle, WA
Howard Scott Gallery, “Samba” New York, NY
2004
Ulster County College, Visiting Artist, Stone Ridge, NY
FosterArt, “Voices” London, England
Cheryl Pelavin, “ Horror Vacuii” New York, NY
Goya-Girl, Baltimore, MD
2002
Arte 92, Milan, Italy
2001
Howard Scott Gallery, New York, NY
2000
Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, “Ford Crull, Art Now”. Montgomery, Alabama
Aurobora Press, “Monoprints”, San Francisco, CA
1998
M-13 Gallery, New York, NY
Ralls Collection, Washington, DC
Andria Friesen Gallery, Seattle, WA
1997
Lafayette College, “Works on Paper 1980-1996”, Easton, PA
1996
M-13 Gallery, New York, NY
Han Art Contemporain, Montreal, Canada
1995
Zolla Lieberman Gallery, Chicago, IL. “Le Fin de Millenaire”
1994
Aurobora Press, “Monotypes”, San Francisco, CA.
M-13 Gallery, New York, NY
1993
Davidson College, “Work From the Eighties”, Davidson, N.C.
Jan Baum Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1992
Linda Farris Gallery, Seattle,WA
Jan Baum Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Zolla Lieberman Gallery, Chicago, IL
1991
Galerie Michel Bigué, Montreal, Canada
Fay Gold Gallery, Atlanta, GA
Gloria Luria Gallery, Miami, FL
M-13 Gallery, New York, NY
1990
M-13 Gallery, New York, NY
Fay Gold Gallery, Atlanta, GA
1989
Gloria Luria Gallery, Miami, FL
Miami Dade College, Miami, FL
1988
Roy Boyd Gallery, Chicago
Linda Farris Gallery, Seattle, WA
G. H. Dalsheimer Gallery, Baltimore, MD
1987
Roy Boyd Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
M-13 Gallery, New York, NY
Linda Farris Gallery, Seattle, WA
Pelavin Editions Gallery, New York, NY
Fay Gold Gallery, Atlanta, GA
Roy Boyd Gallery, Chicago, IL
1986
Roy Boyd Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Vox Populi Gallery, New York, NY
1985
Pictogram Gallery, New York, NY
Roy Boyd Gallery, Chicago, IL
University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
Vox Populi Gallery, New York, NY
1984
Pictogram Gallery, New York, NY
Alex Rosenberg Gallery, New York, NY
1983
Stella Polaris Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1982
Diane Gilson Gallery, Seattle, WA
1980
Tom Luttrell Gallery, San Francisco, CA1979
Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS: 

2023
Selected Prints, Woodstock, NY
2020
11 Jane Street, Saugerties “The Black and White /show
2019
Kleinart Art Center, Labyrinth Woodstock, NY
2018
”VITALITY RISING” Zhou Brothers Art Center, Chicago – March
Cross Contemporary Art, Saugerties, MARK ME: Drawing Show
2017
Cross Contemporary Art, Saugerties, NY “White Out”
Lichtundfire. “Trace” , New York, NY
2016
Lichtundfire. “Emotional Disorder or Cultural Discontent” New York, NY
2015
“Shifting Ecologies 2” Athens Cultural Center, Athens NY
2014
Roger Smith Hotel: Ford Crull and Peggy Cyphers, New York, NY
“Shifting Ecologies” The Painting Center, NY
“Metaglyphic”, Elena Ab Gallery, New York, NY
2012
SPAF, “Blue”. Saugerties, NY
2011
JPMorgan NY. “Loft in the Red Zone”, September. NYC
Rob Ober Gallery, “So Zik!”, Kent, CT
2010
Andria Friesen Gallery, Sun Valley, ID
2009
Andria Friesen Gallery, Seattle, WA
2010
Your Documents Please” April 4- 20 2008 nThe Museum of Arts & Crafts-ITAMI2-5-28,
Miyanomae, Itami-shi HYOGO 6640895 JAPAN 2007
Jane Sauer Gallery, Santa Fe
2007
Cheryl Pelavin Fine Arts, New York, NY
Contemporary Art Projects, London
2005
Howard Scott Gallery, New York, NY
2004
The Armory, “Works on Paper” , New York, NY
2003
FosterArt, “ Atlantic”. London, England
Howl Art Festival. “It’s Alive” East Village, New York, NY
Friesen Gallery. “Medium Rare”, Sun Valley, ID
2002
The Ralls Collection. “America”. Washington, DC
Kleinart Arts Center. “Artists Choose Artists”. Woodstock, NY
2001
Zimmerli Art Museum, “ Confrontations”, Rutgers University, NJ
2000
University of Washington. “ 4 x 4, Four Decades of School of Art Alumni Exhibit. Seattle, WA
Friesen Gallery. New Work, Sun Valley, ID
1999
Montclair Art Museum, “Waxing Poetic: Encaustic Art in America.” May-August
Knoxville Museum of Art, September-January 2000
1998
Pelavin Fine Art, “Spring Show.” New York, NY
Klienart Center, “Space” Woodstock, NY
1997
Galerie Liga Nieuw Beelden, ” OVEREENKOMST”, Leiden, Holland
Elena Zang Gallery, “Flowers” Woodstock, NY
1996
The Ralls Collection, ” Intimate Objects” Washington, D.C.
Fatouhi/Cramer Gallery, “By the Sea” New York, NY
1995
University of Oklahoma, Fred Jones Museum of Art, “The Stephane Janssen
Collection of Contemporary American and European Art”, Oklahoma City
1994
Galeria de Arte,” U.S.A. Within Limits”, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Lakeview Museum, “Illinois Connection”, Peoria, Illinois
Virginia Miller Gallery, “Varied Visions”, Coral Gables Florida
1993
The Drawing Center, “The Return of the Cadavre Exquis”, New York, NY
1994
Exhibition Schedule:
The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Art Contemporaneo, Mexico City
Forum for Contemporary Art, St. Louis, MO
Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica, CA
1993
Venice Biennale, “Xenographia – Nomadic Wall”, Venice, Italy
Champion Gallery, “All That Glitters”, Stamford CT
Fay Gold Gallery, “Works on Paper”, Atlanta, GA
1992
The Armory, “Works on Paper”, New York, NY
The Gallery, “Apocalypse and Resurrection”, New York, NY
M-13 Gallery, “Ceramics”, New York, NY
Michel Bigue Gallery, “Masters of the 20th Century”, Montreal, Canada
1991
Zolla/Lieberman Gallery, Chicago, IL
Zimmerli Art Museum, “Intaglio Printing in the 1980’s, NJ
University Art Gallery, Sonoma State University, “Imagery Series Collection”,
Rohnert Park, CA
Lorence Monk Gallery, “Black & White Prints”, New York, NY
1990
Museum of Fine Arts, “The Unique Print”, Boston, MA
Haggerty Museum, “Contemporary Visions of Death”, Milwaukee, WI
Zimmerli Art Museum, “Surface Printing in the 1980’s from the Rutgers Archives”,
New Brunswick, NJ
1989
Kuznetsky Most,”Painting Beyond the Death of Painting” Moscow, Soviet Union
Wilson Art Center, “Past Tense”, Contemporary American Landscapists, Rochester, NY
North Carolina Museum of Art, “Imprimatur”, Raleigh, NC
Bumpershoot, “Decade of Abstraction” Seattle, WA
Park Avenue Synagogue, “Art”, New York, NY
1988
Adelphi University Manhattan Center Gallery, “Downtown Perspectives”, NewYork,NY
Rhode Island School of Design Museum “New Visions of the Apocalypse” Providence,RI
Center on Contemporary Art, “Seattle: Before and After”, Seattle, WA
1987
M-13 Gallery, “LUST”, New York, NY
Fay Gold Gallery, “Anniversary”, Atlanta, GA
Dalsheimer Gallery, “Paper”, Baltimore, MD
1986
Linda Farris Gallery, “Large Works on Paper”, Seattle, WA
Brooklyn Museum, “Print Biennial”, New York. NYArt Jonction, Nice, France
FORUM, Zurich, Switzerland
Moos Art Gallery, “New York”, Miami, FL
1985
Museo d’Accademia di Bella Arti, “East Village Show”, Catanzaro, Italy
Centre Saidye Bronfman, “East Village Galleries”, Montreal, Canada
Center for Contemporary Art, “New Talent/New York”, East Hampton, NY
Jay Gallery, “The Animal Within”, New York, NY
1984
California Book Works, Otis-Parsons, Los Angeles, CA
Vox Populi, “If Culture Means Anything”, New York, NY
Pan Arts Gallery, “Art & Ego”, New York, NY
Kamikaze Club, “Non-Context”, New York, NY
Art Central, Seattle, WA

ART PERFORMANCES: 

2019
ESKFF Foundation, “Of Sight and Sound.” Mana, Jersey City, NJ
2018
SPRING/BREAK Art Show, STRANGER COMES TO TOWN!
BRIC Stoop Series, “Of Sight and Sound.”
2017
Chashama, Anita’s Way. New York October 17 “Of Sight and Sound”
2015
Mystery of Anticipation, St. John Church, New York, March 15
2012
Woodstock Film Festival. Special art performance. SPAF, October 12
2011
“Fierce and Delicate, the brief history of a painting”. Radar, Seattle. August 27
2010
Bund 1919 Shanghai. “East /West”. June 14