Rick Berry is an American contemporary expressionistic figure artist based in the Boston area. Berry creates art for galleries, illustration, and paintings for theatrical performances.
Berry's work has appeared in many science fiction, fantasy and comic books, including Neil Gaiman's Sandman, Magic: The Gathering cards, and ford super duty carhartt truck Stephen King novels. Berry has also written under the names Sam Rakeland, R.R. Berry, Rich Berry, Richard Berry, and O. Berry.
Berry was born in San Bernardino, California in 1953. His father, an air force fighter pilot, was frequently stationed in China. Berry's childhood home was populated with Asian art which fascinated Berry and later found its way into his works.
At 17 while living in Colorado, Berry left school and home, hitchhiking across the country. His art career started around that time in underground comics, as a founding member of Everyman Studios in Colorado. His first commissioned painting for the book industry was a cover for Jules Verne's 1870 novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas, published by Simon and Schuster, 1978.
Practitioner-in-Residence for Tufts Institute of Global Leadership, 2005, Berry has also created multiple solo exhibitions for TIGL international symposia on various urgent socio/political topics. He’s designed collaborative oil painting events before audiences in Italy and New York.
Berry’s expressionistic figurative paintings are in private collections worldwide, including those of authors Neil Gaiman, Stephen King and George R.R. Martin. His art is exhibited in venues such as Italy’s Lucca Museum of Contemporary Art capital punishment and galleries in NYC, Boston, and San Francisco.
In addition to galleries, Berry’s art appears on countless books and comics, and is featured in major historical anthologies of contemporary illustration. Berry is credited with creating the world’s first digitally painted book cover in 1984 for William Gibson’s Neuromancer. Joining up with Gibson again, he acted as Keanu Reeve’s cyber-stunt double for the award-winning CGI climax, designed by Anderson, Berry & Bodio, in Columbia TriStar’s Johnny Mnemonic.
Berry’s paintings of Amanda Palmer’s new music were featured in her kickstarter campaign famously funded for over a million dollars and others were included in her year long tour. During his artist residency at American Repertory Theater, he created a series of large oil paintings for the set of Cabaret, staring Amanda Palmer.
These won a Silver award from NY Society of Illustrators, just one of many awards and distinctions received during his 30 year career ozzy diaz of art in popular culture.
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