Michael Richards

Michael Rolando Richards (August 2, 1963 – September 11, 2001) was an African-American artist and sculptor of Jamaican and Costa Rican ancestry who was killed during the September 11 attacks while in his art studio on the 92nd floor of the World Trade Center's North Tower. He explored his African-American history and identity through sculpture, conceptual art, and installation pieces. Influenced by the Black Arts Movement of the 1970s, Richards delved into African-American history and folklore for images that would expose the contradictions of American society. Richards worked primarily in bronze.

Early life Richards was born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised in Kingston, Jamaica. From 1992-93, he participated in the Independent Study Program at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Career Richards was an African-American sculptor of Jamaican and Costa Rican ancestry. He explored his African-American history and identity through sculpture, conceptual art, and installation pieces. Influenced by the Black Arts Movement of the 1970s, Richards delved into African-American history and folklore for images that would expose the contradictions of American society. Richards worked primarily in bronze.

He was an artist-in-residence at the Studio Museum in Harlem in 1996 and showed his work there in "Passages" in 1999. Richards received several fellowships during his lifetime.

"Michael started his National Foundation for the Advancement in the Arts (NFAA) residency (1997-1999) housed within the Art Center/South Florida (later Oolite Arts) residency." -Voices in Contemporary Art website (An Alchemist At Work, July 6, 2016)

Oolite Arts would later create the Michael Richards Award (2018). Michael Richards, to whom this award pays tribute, was an incisive, provocative, and poetic artist whose body of work primarily addresses racial inequity and social injustice.

In 2000, he received the Franconia Sculpture Park / Jerome Fellowship. It was during this time that he created the "Are You Down" piece that is now displayed in the park. He was also a recipient of a studio residency from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. This fellowship provided him with his "Studio in the Sky" in the World Trade Center. This has made it the only permanent sculpture in the park. "Are You Down?" later was exhibited at the Bronx Museum of the Arts. When American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the tower between floors 93 and 99, the elevators were inoperable and debris from the impact zone landed onto the 92nd floor to seal up each of the three stairwells, making it impossible for anyone to escape on that floor. As a result, no one on Floor 92 and higher in the North Tower was able to survive. Richards remains have never been recovered. The Michael Richards Fund was created to support artists of Caribbean descent. At the National September 11 Memorial, Richards is memorialized at the North Pool, on Panel N-63.