Full Bio

Education: 
University of Washington: B.F.A., Painting – 1966
University of Washington: M.F.A., Painting – 1968

Solo Exhibitions/Performances

1969 Cheney Cowles Museum of Art; Spokane, Washington
1970 The Art Museum; University of California, Santa Barbara
1971 Francine Seders Gallery; Seattle
1972 The Art Museum; University of California, Santa Barbara
1977 Santa Barbara Museum of Art – painting
1978 San Francisco Art Institute – performance
“Soundworks” Santa Barbara Museum of Art – performance
1979 Alice Benjamin Gallery; Santa Barbara – scores/works on paper
“California Soundworks, Richard Dunlap,” Ohio State University
1981 “Intersphere,” Santa Barbara Museum of Art – installation/performance
1983 Experimental Intermedia Foundation, New York – performance
1985 “Tables and Fables,” College of Creative Studies, U.C. Santa Barbara – installation/performance
1990 “History of Animals,” PULSE 2, The Art Museum, U.C. Santa Barbara – performance
1992 “History of Animals,” Contemporary Arts Forum, Santa Barbara – performance
“Animations,” Santa Barbara Museum of Art – installation/performance
1993 “Soundworks 2,” Music Academy of the West , Santa Barbara – performance
“History of Animals,” Arizona State University, Phoenix – installation/performance
1999 “Richard Dunlap: A Retrospective for Eyes and Ears,” CAF, Santa Barbara
“Sound Works: Past and Present,” Center Stage Theater, Santa Barbara

Group Exhibitions/Performances [selected]

1968 “American Drawing 1968,” Moore College of Art; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
“Drawing U.S.A.,” Art Museum; Saint Paul, Minnesota
“Northwest Annual,” Seattle Art Museum
1969 “San Francisco International Film Festival.”
“Three in One,” University of Oregon, Eugene
1970 “Drawing ’70,” San Francisco Museum of Art
1971 “New Painting, New York; New Painting, Santa Barbara,” Santa Barbara Museum of Art
1972 “Four Painters,” University of Nevada, Las Vegas
1974 “Richard Dunlap/Miles Varner,” Ruth Schaffner Gallery, Los Angeles
1975 “Three for Icarus,” Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art
“Nine from California,” Occidental College, Los Angeles
1976 “Printed Works/Recorded Works,” La Mamelle, San Francisco; and/or, Seattle
“Concentrics,” Fylkingen New Music and Intermedia Arts Center; Stockholm, Sweden
1977 “Subtleties,” Janus Gallery; Venice, California
1978 “Forms for Sound,” San Francisco Art Institute
“Sound,” Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art
“Sound at P.S. 1,” P.S.1, New York, N.Y.
1979 “New Instrumental Resources,” Center for Musical Experiment, U.C., San Diego
“Visual Musical Permutations,” University of California, Irvine
1981 “Für Augen und Ohren,” Akademie der Künste; Berlin, Germany
“Terminal Arrivals/Terminal Departures,” Visual Arts Center; Anchorage, Alaska
“New Music, America,” San Francisco
1982 “Hang 8: Artists from Southern California,” Foundations Gallery, New York
1983 “Of This Time, Of This Place,” Open Space Gallery; Victoria, B.C., Canada
1984 “Sound/Art,” The Sculpture Center,New York, N.Y., BACA/DCC Gallery, Brooklyn , N.Y.;
Real Art Ways; Hartford, Connecticut
“Dunlap – Lightbody,” Risser Gallery, Pasadena, California
1985 “Constructures; New Perimetrics in Abstract Painting,” Nohra Haime Gallery, New York
1987 “Sound Art at Mobius,” Mobius; Boston, Mass.
1990 “PULSE 2,” The Art Museum, U.C., Santa Barbara
1992 “Animations/Speaking Thunder,” Santa Barbara Museum of Art
“Instruments of Sound,” Irvine Fine Arts Center; Irvine, California
1994 “V. Forfest ’94,” International Festival of Contemporary Arts, Kromeriz, Czech Republic
“New Music Festival,” Bratislava, Slovakia
“In The Spirit Of FLUXUS,” Santa Barbara Museum of Art
1996 “Terminals,” The Art Museum,U.C.S.B.
“The End of Standard Time,” Contemporary Arts Forum, Santa Barbara
“Fundamentally ElementałThe Figure in Motion,” Santa Barbara Museum of Art
1998 “20 International Festival du Film Independant,” music for “This Time on Earth,” Brussels
“Short Pictures International Film Festival, Los Angeles
“Brainwash Movie Festival,” San Francisco
1999 “Metro Trans Art,” The Art Museum, U.C.S.B.
2000/01 “Walk Cycle,” a film by Ted Mills; sound track, Richard Dunlap
16th Annual Festival International, Saint-Gely, France; Zeitgeist Film Festival, San Francisco;
Mercey HotSprings Film Festival, California,
Mill Valley Film Festival, California; Represent the Reel Festival, South Bronx, N.Y.;
Oceanside Film Fesival, California; La Boca Del Lobo Festival,
Madrid, Spain; Euroshorts2 Film Fest, Warsaw, Poland;
Altern 8 International Short Film Festival, Tg.-Mures, Romania
2003 “ 9X9,” Contemporary Arts Forum, Santa Barbara
“Art in Public Places”, Santa Barbara
2004 “BLUR@Bekins”, temporary contemporary exhibition, The Funk Zone, Santa Barbara
2009 “EDGE: Santa Barbara Artists Respond”, Channing Peake Gallery, Santa Barbara

Bibliography [selected]

Elena Canavier, “Dunlap and Varner,” Artweek, Feb. 4,1974
Henry Seldis, “Art Walk,” Los Angeles Times, Feb. 8, 1974
Ron Glowen, “Introspective Work by Four Californians,”Artweek, March 26, 1977
Stephan Westfall, “Richard Dunlap and David Ligare,” Artweek, May, 1977
Will Parsons, “Space Structures,” Music for Citizens Band, Vol. One, 1978
Jonathon Apples, “Forms for Sound,” Artweek, Sept. 9, 1978
Adrienne Rosenthal, “The Shapes of Sound,” Artweek, Aug, 11, 1979
Suzanne Muchnic, “…AND IT COMES OUT HERE,” Los Angeles Times, Aug.12, 1979
“Sound,” catalogue and record anthology, Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary,
Art/Project Studios 1, New York, 1979
“Für Augen und Ohren,” catalogue, Akademie der Künste; Berlin, 1980
“Richard Dunlap,”Interval, Spring-Summer, 1980
Peter Frank, “Hunting the Emerging American,” National Arts Guide, Jan.-Feb., Vol. III, #1, 1981
Joan Hugo, “Richard Dunlap at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art,” Images and Issues, Fall,1981
“Richard Dunlap – INTERSPHERE,” catalogue, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, 1981
Josef Woodard, “Art as Organism,” Santa Barbara News and Review, April 30, 1981
Josef Woodard, “Dick Dunlap, et. al., Empty Space Theater,” Santa Barbara News and Review,
“Hang 8: Artists from Southern California,” catalogue; Peter Frank, curator; Foundations Gallery, New York 1982
Jim Theobald, “When Machines Make Music,” The Villager, New York, May 12, 1983
Todd Brewster, “Twangs and Tweedles, a medley of new instruments,” LIFE magazine, Nov. 1983
Fidel Danielli, “Black on Black at the Contemporary Arts Forum,” Images and Issues, Nov.-Dec., 1983
Matthias Matussek/Margita Theurer, “Wo Klavier und Geige ausgespielt haben,”
STERN magazine, Jan. 19, 1984
Josef Woodard, “New Music Expressionists,” Los Angeles Reader, March 9, 1984
“Sound/Art,” catalogue, Soundart Foundation; The Sculpture Center, NY; BACA’S Gallery, Brooklyn, NY;1984
Alessandro Carrera, “Nel Corso Del Suono,” Mondadori Editori, Jan., 1984
“Constructures: New Perimetrics of Abstract Painting,” catalogue; curated by Peter Frank;
Nohra Haime Gallery, New York, 1985
Josef Woodard, “Dunlap: Artist in search of a happy medium,” Santa Barbara News Press, Aug. 17, 1985
Michael Drury, “Artist in Resonance,” The Weekly, Santa Barbara, Aug. 29, 1985
“PULSE 2,” catalogue; The Art Museum, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1990
Josef Woodard, “Different Animals,” The Independent, Oct. 4, 1990
Russ Spencer, “Pulling out all the stops,” Santa Barbara News Press, Oct. 7, 1990
Josef Woodard, “Creature Feature,” The Independent, Oct. 18, 1990
Josef Woodard, “Richard Dunlap, History of Animals – David Mahler, The Art of Tape,”
High Performance, Spring, 1991
Josef Woodard, “Sensory Animalis,” Artweek, Nov. 3. 1990
Josef Woodard, “Garden of Found Delights,” The Independent, Santa Barbara, June 25, 1992
Cover; detail from History of Animals, Artweek. August, 1996
Josef Woodard, “A Conversation with Richard Dunlap, sound artist.” Artweek, August, 1996
George Zahora, review of “Ode to the Sistrum,” Splendid E-zine, 2000:
http://www.splendidezine.com/reviews/jun-19-00/richard.html

Discography/Videography

“Sound,” a record anthology produced by the Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art and P.S. 1,
New York, 1979
“New Music Performance at P.S. 1,” a video produced by Holly O’Grady, directed by Gregory Crosbie;
P.S. 1 and Long Island University, 1979
“After Images,” music of Daniel Lentz; R. Dunlap – voice and keyboard; Cold Blue Records, 1981
“Soundscapes,” a record album with music by Randy Tico, R. Dunlap – piano harp; Stepping Stone Productions, 1984
“Sum Songs,” a record album by Joyce Lightbody; R. Dunlap – keyboard; 1987
“Headless Household,”a record album by Headless Household, an experimental music group with music by R. Dunlap et.al.; Household Ink, 1987
“Inside/Outside U.S.A.,” CD; music by Headless Household; Household Ink, 1993
“Items,” CD; music by Headless Household; Household Ink, 1996
“b.e.comings,” CD; music by Daniel Lentz; R. Dunlap – voice and keyboard; Rhizome sketch, 1995
“Free Associations,” CD; music by Headless Household; Household Ink, 1999
“Ode to the Sistrum,” a solo album with music composed and performed by Richard Dunlap,
produced by the Contemporary Arts Forum; Santa Barbara, 1999
“mockhausen,” CD, Headless Household, 2000
“post-Polka” CD, Headless Household, 2003
“Blur Joan,” CD, Headless Household, 2005
“Basemento,” CD, Headless Household, 2010
“Headless Household Takes El Paseo, 1988” Headless Household, 2024
“Intersphere,” Solo, 2024

Teaching

University of Washington; Teaching Assistant, 1966-68; Acting Instructor, 1968-69
University of California, Santa Barbara; Lecturer, 1969-72; Assistant Professor, 1972-77
Visiting Artist; University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 1973;University of Hawaii,, Hilo, 1974
College of Creative Studies, U.C.S.B., 1980-81; Art Department, U.C.S.B., 1985
Ohio State University, Columbus, 1979; Arizona State University, Phoenix, 1993;
Performance/FLUXUS workshop, The Santa Barbara Museum of Art, 1994
Visiting Lecturer; California State Universities at Chico and Sonoma, 1975; U.C. San Diego, 1979

Awards/Grants [selected]

1968 Purchase Award, “American Drawing 1968,” Moore College of Art, Philadelphia
1972 Creative Arts Fellowship, University of California
1980 Tiffany Award – Painting
1981 Charles Bloom Foundation
1990 Esperia Foundation
1992 W.M. Keck Foundation (for “Speaking Thunder/Animations,” Santa Barbara Museum of Art)
1996 Santa Barbara Arts Fund

Related Experiences

Performed with Steve Reich, “Music for Voices, Mallet Instruments and Organ,” Richard Dunlap, organ.
Collaboration with Terry Allen, “Ornithopera,” Richard Dunlap playing piano on video.
Performed with the Daniel Lentz Ensemble, “Metamusik Festival 3 -Musik & Aktion,” Berlin
Sound engineer for Laurie Anderson, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, 1980.
Various collaborations with Dean McNeil, Daniel Lentz, Rudy Perez, Malcolm Goldstein, Jim Pomeroy, Terry Allen, Jo Harvey Allen, Joyce Lightbody, John Arvanites, Elena Siff, Jerry Kerns, Pauline Oliverez, Joan Tanner, Alice Hutchins, Jeff Kaiser, Malcolm Goldstein et. al.
Various performances with Joe Venuti, William O. (Bill) Smith, Mal Waldron, Dave Freisen, Bill Fontana, Jeff Kaiser, Jim Connolly, Tom Lackner, Headless Household, Arlene Dunlap, John Bergamo, Daniel Lentz Ensemble, Sam Erenberg, Richard Lerman et. al.
Various FLUXUS performances and collaborations with Larry Miller, Willem deRidder, Emmett Williams, Yosimasa Wada, Dick Higgins, Alison Knowles, Alice Hutchins et.al.
Composed Music for dance for Rudy Perez, Robin Bisio, Julie McCloud and U.C.S.B. Dance Company.
Music for film;
“Profiles Cast Long Shadows,” by Robert Sperry,
“This Time on Earth,” by Robin Bisio
“The Answer is Rarely,” by Richard and Arlene Dunlap, Fred and Phyllis Gebauer
“Walk Cycle’” by Ted Mills,
“Try It Out,” Transformable magnetic constructions by Alice Hutchins,
video by John Houchins, music by Dick Dunlap
“Inca Mythology,” by Jim Keeshen, sound/music by Richard Dunlap

RICHARD DUNLAP

Richard Dunlap was born in Seattle, Washington and received an MFA in painting from the University of Washington in 1968. He taught Art at U.C.S.B. in the 70’s and 80’s. His work has been shown nationally in New York (P.S.1, Experimental Intermedia Foundation, Nohra Haime Gallery, Foundations Gallery, the Sculpture Center, BACA/DCC Gallery), Los Angeles (Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art, Ruth Schaffner Gallery, Janus Gallery), Boston (Mobius), and in Anchorage, Philadelphia, Saint Paul, Las Vegas, Irvine, Columbus, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco and San Diego among others. He has participated in New Music America festivals in San Francisco and Hartford. Richard has shown internationally in Berlin at the Akademie der Künste (Für Augen und Ohren – “For Seeing and Hearing”), and in Canada, Sweden, the Czech Republic and Slovkia. Locally, Richard has had solo exhibitions at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art (Soundworks, 1978 and INTERSPHERE, 1981), the Art, Design & Architecture Museum and the College of Creative Studies Art Gallery (Tables and Fables), UCSB. His work has been performed at the Center Stage Theater (Soundworks: Past and Present, 1999) and in the PULSE II exhibition at UCSB (History of Animals,1990). Richard participated in the In the Spirit of Fluxus exhibition at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art (1994) and in 1999 he had a retrospective (Richard Dunlap: A Retrospective for Eyes and Ears) at the Contemporary Arts Forum. His work is in the permanent collections of the AD&A Museum,
and the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. Dunlap, as a musician/jazz performer/composer has also created music for film, video and dance. A sound/music CD (Ode to the Sistrum) was produced in conjunction with his retrospective at CAF. A new limited edition CD (Visitation) was produced for the upcoming exhibition at the Arts Fund Galllery. His grants and awards include
a Creative Arts Fellowship from the University of California, grants from the Bloom, W.M.Keck and Esperia Foundations, a Tiffany Award in Painting, and a music composition award from the Santa Barbara Arts Fund. Richard has received several drawing awards including a purchase award, American Drawing 1968, Moore College of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Contact Richard “Dick” Dunlap HERE.