BIO

Richard Glazer-Danay (b. 1942, Coney Island, New York) is an internationally renowned artist whose work includes paintings and assemblage. His most recognizable pieces are his painted hard hats, which reference his family’ s history as ironworkers and his childhood in New York.

Ric earned his BA from California State University, Northridge in 1970, a MA from California State University, Chico in 1972, and MFA from the University of California, Davis in 1978. He served as the Rupert Costo Chair of American Indian Affairs at the University of California, Riverside, and taught in the Departments of Fine Arts and American Indian Studies at California State University, Long Beach for 25 years. Previously, he served as the Chair of the Department of Multicultural Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay. He also served as a commissioner on the Indian Arts and Crafts Board for many years.

Ric’s art is inspired by his upbringing in Coney Island and Los Angeles, his work as an ironworker (connector), his service in the US Army, and his Mohawk and Jewish identity. His art is derived from both pop and postmodernist art movements, and he employs a wry and ironic sense of humor in his interpretation of Indian themes and the status of women in modern American life. He is both a painter and a sculptor who can combine these media in the same work.

Ric has exhibited widely in the United States and in Europe. His work can be found in the permanent collections of the British Museum, Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Peabody Essex Museum, Carnegie Museum of Art, Vienna's Museum fur Vokerkunde, Heard Museum, Autry National Center, and the Philbrook Museum to name a few. His work was also included in the 1999 Venice Biennale and the 1994 Havana Biennial.

Ric is the only and oldest child from the union of Charlotte (Maliniak) Glazer (of Ashkenazi descent) and Francis Xavier Danay (Kahnawake Mohawk). He has seven half siblings across the country. Ric moved to Los Angeles with his mother and stepfather at age 14, enlisted in the Army at 18, and moved and back forth between LA and NY for several years before marrying his wife Gayle in 1970. They have two children together, Brant (b. 1973) and Brooke (b. 1976).