was born September 8, 1976 in Houston, Texas. He attended the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland, where he received a BFA in 1998 for painting. His mixed media paintings and drawings are best described as densely composed narratives that often depict men of color, flowers, fruit, insects, animals, and other natural still life forms in lush, fictionalized allegorical settings.
He is a founding member of BLAFTCO, the alternative visual art group who, since 1992, have created a variety of community based, innovative multi-media projects and exhibitions such as The New Museum (1994), Public Opinion (1996), and All Sizes/Real People (1997). Presently, Mr. Francis works independently with his own visual arts company, Apanamae Productions. His work is represented exclusively by LeonidesArts Gallery NY.
Since the mid 1990s, Mr. Francis has exhibited continually within the United States, and as far away as China. A few solo shows were Ricardo Francis: A Search of Self/A Search for Meaning (2007), and Exhibit A (2002). Group show highlights consist of Eye Am a Man (2011), The Beauty of Color, Shadow, and Light (2010), Brother to Brother (2006), American Made/Made in America (2003), Dancing in the Dark: Part II (2003), and DL: The Down Low in Contemporary Art (2003). Also as a writer and director, he has produced a number of major multi-media performance projects, some of which are The Anonymous Life (2005) and ¿Que Hora Es? (2002).
Awards received include a Level 1 Scholarship in Painting from both Musicfest and the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts, as well as the coveted Presidential Scholarship in the Arts on behalf of the White House Commission on Presidential Scholars. His art resides in various private and corporate art collections around the country, and has been featured in publications such as Vibe and Swerv magazines, Callaloo: A Literary Journal of African Diaspora Arts and Letters, and Liberty, an expatriate magazine in Dubai.
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