richard saxton

PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF ART and ART HISTORY
UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO, BOULDER, CO, USA 

Richard Saxton is an artist and educator whose work focuses on rural knowledge and landscape. His projects have been created through multi-disciplinary frameworks, including publications, exhibitions, and land and environmental artworks. Saxton is the founder of M12 STUDIO, an ever-evolving collaborative that develops and supports new modes of public art making in rural and remote areas. M12’s projects focus on landscape identity and the value of often under-represented rural communities and their surrounding regions. Saxton is the editor of three major works; Landlines: San Luis Valley, Journey into the American West (2024, Spector Books, Germany), The Center Pivot Box Set (2018, Jap Sam Books, Netherlands), and A Decade of Country Hits: Art on the Rural Frontier (2014, Jap Sam Books, Netherlands). As a creative practitioner Saxton has worked regionally and internationally with projects and commissioned works exhibited at SITE Santa Fe, NM; The Luminary, St. Louis, MO; The 21st International Art Biennial of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia; The 13th International Venice Architecture Biennale, Venice, Italy; Plains Art Museum, Fargo, ND; Landmark Arts at Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX; The Kalmar Konstmuseum, Kalmar, Sweden; The Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland; The Santa Fe Art Institute, NM; Corcoran Gallery, Washington DC; IASKA Australian Biennial, Perth, Australia; Biennial of the Americas, Denver, CO; The Contemporary Museum, Baltimore, MD; and The Center for Land Use Interpretation, Culver City, CA / Wendover, NV. 

Professor Saxton keeps an active research and teaching agenda, having directed the Art + Rural Environments Field School at the University of Colorado in Boulder each summer since 2010. This unique program takes place entirely off-campus for three weeks and allows students to explore and discuss approaches to art-making in rural natural and cultural environments. The Field School focuses on site, community, collaboration, and experimentation, and students engage in various projects, exercises, and discussions. The Summer Field School contributes to increased visibility on regional and national levels and supports the next generation of site-specific and environmental artists. Professor Saxton has led field-research opportunities to sites in rural Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Arizona, Kansas, Nevada, South Dakota, North Dakota, Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, as well as to South America, Western Europe, Scandinavia, and the Arctic. The Rural Field School program and artworks by the students have been highlighted in journals such as Adobe Airstream, Southwest Contemporary, and ArtNews. In addition to being a celebrated academic program, many students in the Field School have left the program with direct experience working alongside internationally acclaimed artists such as William L. Fox, Rael & San Fratello, Buster Simpson, Chip Thomas (Jetsonorarma), Marjetica Potrc, Haiko Meijer, Eric Steen, Kultivator, Wapke Feenstra, Fritz Haeg, Chris Sauter, Lynne Hull, and others. As part of his teaching practice and love of places, Professor Saxton enjoys connecting students with land and environmental artists and synchronal programs around the world.