Rick Berry

Connection with Tufts University Berry was commissioned to create several solo exhibitions at Tufts University for their [Institute of Global Leadership]. Examples of topics Berry explored include human trafficking, conflict resolution over limited resources, the politics of fear, and the advancing globalization of China. During 2005-06 Berry was Practitioner in Residence for Tufts INSPIRE program.

Of works created for these international symposia, Rick states “These paintings serve as meditation upon events almost too overwhelming to contemplate. Seeing with art, it becomes possible to move toward the problems considered, rather than run from them”

Opera and theatre Berry was invited to participate in the first visual art residency offered by Opera Boston, a company known for innovative repertoire choices. The two-season collaboration seemed a natural partnership as soon as it began with Shostakovich's surreal opera The Nose (opera). "Rick Berry...was embedded in the rehearsals" (BostonMetro Feb 27, 2009) where he sketched performers in the dark. Back in the studio, Berry would put aside these small sketches and without photography or models, he relied upon his unique process of discovery in the paint and his memory, to evolve large scale works for gallery exhibitions. Berry brought this technique to live theater in his 2010 collaboration with Amanda Palmer and the American Repertory Theater.

Amanda Palmer and Cabaret In 2010, Amanda Palmer invited Berry to engage in her upcoming production of Cabaret at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Once again, he employed his process of rapid ink drawing while embedded in rehearsals, later producing large expressive oil paintings as a part of the café theater set. Influenced by the intensity of the story, performers, and Butoh movement in this production, Berry created works that were "like images of ghosts projected on smoke and ash. Just at the moment you think you've resolved them, they shimmer and erode before your eyes." Berry was awarded the Silver Medal from the Society of Illustrators for his painting "To Absent Friends" in this series.

Berry's next collaboration with Amanda Palmer was as one of several artists selected to paint images influenced by her new songs. Two Berry paintings are included in her 2012–13 world tour gallery and art book.

Selected solo and group exhibitions Wondervisions 2026 - Group exhibition of Everyman Studios founders in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, March 2026 Amanda Palmer and the Grand Theft Orchestra - International year-long record tour with pop up art exhibits, 2013 Tome II:Melancholia - Last Rites Gallery, NY October 2013 Back to Back - Sloane Merrill Gallery, Boston, April 2013 Rick Berry; Sloane Merrill Gallery Boston October 2013 Rick Berry;Seeing In The Dark- Gallery 360, Northeastern University, Boston, MA January–March 2011 It Figures;Rick Berry and Damon Lehrer- The William Scott Gallery Boston, MA Sept 2011*Sur-Realism Arcadia Gallery, New York, NY July 2012 Shapeshifters:Art of Rick Berry and Venessa Lemen- Encinitas Library Gallery, Encinitas CA July 2012 Endless Reflections: 20 Years of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman. - GalleryNucleus, Alhambra, CA Oil and Water: Rick Berry- Tufts Institute for Global Leadership, Hall of Flags, Fletcher School of Government, Tufts University, Medford, MA, February 2005 Have and Have Nots- Varnish Fine Art Gallery San Francisco CA April 2012 Plenty - 13 Forest Gallery Arlington MA Nov 2011 National Figures- The William Scott Gallery Boston MA October 2011 Seeing in the Dark: Pattern Recognition- Sharon Arts Exhibition Gallery, Peterborough, NH, August 2009 Designer Beings: The Anatomy of Presence- Newton Free Library, Newton, MA October 2007 Globalization and China: Challenging Cultural Boundaries- Tufts Institute for Global Leadership, February 2001, Global Crime, Corruption and Accountability- Tufts Institute for Global Leadership, Tufts University, Medford, MA February 1998

Selected awards Berry won the silver medal in 2010 from the Society of Illustrators Sparrow, Volume 6: Rick Berry, IDW Publishing, 2008