John Richen (B 1943) American, Large Heavy Brushed Aluminum Wall Sculpture. Shows a winding river through a desert scene. Multi-layer/dimensional structure with large brackets on the back to sit on wall. This Modern sculpture has been drawing interest locally since its arrival. 

Size: 48 x 52 x 2 in. 

#3221 . 

John Richen was born in 1943 in Sherwood, Oregon. His mother Margaret had been employed by the Army Corp of Engineers in Portland where she met and married Harold Richen, and when he died in combat she raised her two children on her own, instilling a fierce independence in John from a young age. While studying architecture at Oregon State University, Richen enrolled in a class on sculpture on a whim, and swiftly shifted his career focus after discovering he had an innate talent for the medium. The “hands-on” feeling of sculpting a design he had created held a special appeal for him, and his architectural foundation served him well while working in heavier, more expensive metals like bronze and steel. Richen began creating abstract pieces after a road trip through the American Southwest, heavily influenced by the “dry bones” of the deserts. Working with a fabrication technique, he starts with a flat sheet, cutting and manipulating it, then adding color by using different alloys. He married his wife Ellie in 1970, with whom he eventually had eight children. He gained immediate attention in the West Coast art scene, and designed and built a home and studio in Borrego Springs, California in 1998, where he began to experiment further with aluminum, fused glass, and granite. Each piece is one-of-a-kind, with hundreds exhibited in major shows throughout the country, as well as in Amsterdam and Montreal. In addition to his large-scale commissioned sculptures and fountains, Richen designs smaller sculptures for both residential and corporate buildings. Many of these latter works are created in a numbered series, not to exceed ten of any one design, and can be found in collections around the world, with a permanent exhibition at the Marshall Fine Art Gallery in Scottsdale, Arizona.