Spotlight Artist

Clinton Ricketts

Midwest
Artist profile photo
Featured in New American Paintings

Artist Statement

In my work, I create narratives using references from personal and popular resources. I am endlessly fascinated by human interactions. I explore the comfort found in ritual and group thinking. My characters wait patiently together, groom each other, and task towards small, strange goals. I focus on the nuances of expressions and gestures and their meanings, both implicit and vague.

My recent drawings are taken from photographs in which I ask family and friends to act as players in staged absurd narratives. I am obliged to the photograph or source from which I am drawing, but the practice of drawing is for me an opportunity for creative invention. Through this invention, I explore my own thoughts on the human condition.

Artist's Additional works

Works shared by the artist outside of their featured New American Paintings selections

Featured artwork
Featured artwork

Discover more artists from the Midwest

THE MAGAZINE

Explore our magazine to discover exceptional artists

Open magazine with text, modern illustrations, and a list of artists on a pink background.
View issues

Call for Artists

Submit your work for consideration

New American Paintings is a juried exhibition-in-print and digital, presenting the work of 40 emerging artists in each issue.

View competitions

Your gateway to new art

Discover tomorrow's art stars, today

Two books on a wooden table with a modern decorative sculpture in the background.

PRINT + EARLY ACCESS DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTION

$179/YEAR

DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTION

$99/YEAR OR $10/MONTH

Each issue of New American Paintings features forty artists selected through our juried competitions—presented in a beautifully curated, full-color publication. Subscribers receive six issues per year, plus exclusive online access to current and past editions. Are you a collector? Consider our premium subscription and receive our museum-quality printed publication + access to each new digital issue two weeks before its general release.