100 Colorado Creatives 3.0: Dylan Gebbia-Richards

#39: Dylan Gebbia-Richards

Dylan Gebbia-Richards’s skill as a freestyle skier and a yearning to be on the slopes brought him to Colorado from the East Coast, landing him at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he switched gears from other interests to pursue art. Just as he gracefully tackles big air, the inventive 2015 graduate goes big and does it his way as an artist, creating densely textural sculptured canvases and complex woven and fibrous, layered installations that belie his young age. This kid is going places. Get the full picture from his answers to the 100CC questionnaire.
Westword: If you could collaborate with anyone in history, who would it be, and why?

Dylan Gebbia-Richards: David Lynch. He appears to be able to find infinite depth in pretty much anything he does. People who are like this, though, usually always get stuck somewhere in a rabbit hole, but he is clearly able to return to the big picture and actually get the work done. That combination of depth and perspective is unbeatable, and I would love to collaborate with him mainly just to learn the subtleties of his approach and co-opt some of that technique and apply it to the things I am interested in.

Who in the world is interesting to you right now, and why?

Tim Urban. His talk on AI, “The Artificial Intelligence Revolution,” is A-plus. He also has a blog called Wait But Why, which I would recommend checking out.
What's one art trend you want to see die this year?

Smoking cigarettes.

What's your day job?

I work on the installations team at the Denver Art Museum — great group of people.

A mystery patron offers you unlimited funds for life. What will you do with it?

I would make higher education free for anyone who wanted to go.
Denver, love it or leave it? What keeps you here — or makes you want to leave?

I love Colorado. The outdoors keep me here. As a kid, one of the things I wanted to be was a professional skier, so living here allows me to keep skiing. As far as the larger art world goes, Colorado feels pretty isolated, so that is a motivation to leave.

What's the one thing Denver (or Colorado) could do to help the arts?

Select a group of artists and give them a livable salary rather than funding big public arts projects. I cannot remember who said this on Facebook the other day, but I think it’s a great idea. I searched to try and credit this person but could not find the original post, so sorry, but great idea.

Who is your favorite Colorado Creative?

Michael Beitz. His scope of creation and mastery of skill is very impressive.
What's on your agenda in the coming year?

I’m in a two-person show now with Chris Oatey at David B. Smith and also have a solo show opening at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art on January 26. The show at BMoCA will feature an installation similar to my paintings, filling half the exhibitions space, which I couldn’t be more excited about.

Who do you think will get noticed in the local arts community in the coming year?

Megan Gafford has some upcoming shows, which I think will get some rightfully deserved attention.

See work by Dylan Gebbia-Richards in a two-person show with Chris Oatey through February 18 at David B. Smith Gallery. A solo show, Dylan Gebbia Richards: Eclipse, opens with a reception from 6:30 to 9 p.m. Thursday, January 26, at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, and runs through May 29. Learn more about Dylan Gebbia-Richards and his work online.