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Richard Samuel says the origins of RichesArt gallery can be traced to his mother, who encouraged her young son to enter art competitions. As a young boy growing up in Wimberley, Texas, Samuel had an artistic passion, first expressed in colorful drawings of action figures.
“I love to say that the only thing that artists are blessed with is the desire to create,” Samuel said, “so that desire leads you down that lane of practice.”
Samuel opened RichesArt in East Austin in June 2021. It began as a single room in which he taught watercolor classes. Eventually, it grew into an art gallery that also hosts his custom clothing business and jazz nights. When Samuel discovered that he ran Austin’s only Black-owned art gallery – one of just a few in the state – he said it deepened his commitment to making the gallery a communal environment.
“You want a place where people can constantly express themselves – they can bounce ideas off each other,” Samuel said.
The gallery mostly features the work of local artists, including Kayla Kennedy, Xavier Alvarado, Jarrid Williams-Dadrophet, and Steph Ivelisse. Prices range from $100 up to $5,500.
Samuel’s path to become an artist went through football.
“Richard was always very driven in high school and worked very hard to be successful,” Samuel’s Wimberley High School football coach, Doug Warren, recalled. “His drive and passion for his work has continued into adulthood and it is no surprise that he made his gallery a success. That’s just who he is.”
When he enrolled at Texas Southern University, Samuel said he felt pressured to choose between football and art. His success as a wide receiver for the Tigers from 2009 to 2011 led to a professional football career in Europe. Experiencing the lively cultures of Germany and Italy only furthered his creative drive. An Achilles tendon tear ended Samuel’s football career in 2016, the same year that he opened a solo art show in Germany. Although Samuel held several subsequent coaching jobs, they were not fulfilling.
“It occurred to me that I had those roles reversed,” he said in an interview. “Art is the actual love of my life, and football’s my hobby. Both are still important, but one takes precedence over the other.”
He added: “Merging the two worlds kind of represents the dichotomy of me as a human being – an artist and a football player,” Samuel said.
Image credit: Richard Samuel.
Recalling the vibrant artistic culture of his hometown of Wimberley, RichesArt now showcases visual arts, music, poetry, and comedy. Regardless of medium, art allows humans to express themselves. Samuel said that he wants to provide a safe environment to do just that.
Savannah Ringard, RichesArt’s artist and experience manager, said that the key is to encourage all attendees to participate, regardless of their background or experience. Ringard, who hosts the gallery’s Tuesday poetry events, said the sole qualification to be a poet is to have a narrative.
“I don’t want it to feel like you must call yourself a poet to come and share. It’s a poetry open mic but we call the event “words” because that’s the simplest thing. We all have words. We all have a story.”
Ringard said that art is a self-care tool for attendees overstimulated by everyday life. Research suggests that art exposure and creation improve mental health and cognitive function. RichesArt also offers mental health and yoga events. Ringard is most passionate about the gallery’s annual mental health exhibit. Partnering with local mental health organizations, it encourages participants to creatively release their internal struggles, while offering therapy services as prizes.
“It’s been beautiful to create an environment where it’s not taboo to talk about your mental health,” she said. “Wherever you are on your healing journey, we have resources for you to grow and heal.”
Image credit: James Woodford III.
In a world dominated by social media that fosters immediate rewards, “It’s important for us to get in touch with the process more than just the results,” added the gallery’s events curator, Jonathan Chima Ezemba. “It can be healing because it removes our need for instant gratification and finds more gratitude in the mundane and less glory-filled parts.”
Samuel said this especially applies to young people, whom he wants to help to find their creative processes – and to own them – in an increasingly gentrified and corporatized city.
“There will be a brand-new hotel that opens up down the street, and they will hit up an artist, asking if they would like to decorate the place,” he said. “Young artists jump on that opportunity but what that company just did is save thousands of dollars on curating their business without properly paying the artist.”
Image credit: Dominique Newland.
Although RichesArt is Austin’s only Black-owned, brick-and-mortar gallery, other online art galleries have opened up. Samuel said he encourages the flowering of a diverse community of local creators who embrace partnerships. Having played a team sport, he said that he knows that cooperation delivers results.
“Everyone is so willing to collaborate, cross-promote, and push the narrative forward as a group,” he said. “Camaraderie is definitely something that I’ve noticed from football that has translated into our community. We’re 100 percent successful because we all support each other.”
Marcus Santillanes is a graduate of Huston-Tillotson University, where he was a W.E.B. Du Bois Honors scholar who majored in environmental justice and participated in HT’s Austin Free Press journalism project. Santillanes wrote a story on “Japan’s Unforgiving Working Culture” as a Pulitzer Center Reporting Fellow in 2022.
