Feels Like Home, The Richmond Landscape Show You Need To See

Every week I get emails from people who have been to see it. It is surprising to many people, the beauty to be found in this city, and they write to let me know they share this knowledge, too.

In the words of curator Amy Spencer: “Richmond and its surrounds inspires and serves as a platform for exploration in the work of Rebeca García-González. Her landscapes encompass West County’s quintessential scenes—sunny urban streets, rolling hills dotted with oil storage tanks, and mammoth shipyards—while also revealing lesser known locales. This includes a vernal pool, a swamp next to housing tracts, and a forgotten company town. Bringing together paintings and sketchbooks, Feels Like Home presents a visual tour of how Richmond’s natural and industrialized beauty exists side-by-side. Painted over the last decade, the work in this exhibition also conjures memories of what has been lost and what Richmond still stands to lose. As García-González explains, “Most of these landscapes are contested spaces. Either developers want them or industry is changing them.”

Interspersed among García-González’s landscapes are portraits of Richmond residents who represent the community that is at the heart of our city’s future. Feels Like Home also marks the unveiling of García-González’s new permanent mural at Richmond Art Center We Found Joy In Art-Making / Encontramos La Felicidad Haciendo Arte (2021). Painted over a month in December 2021, the work explores the connections between art-making and wellness, and was created with assistance from Richmond youth.” Free admission. Learn more here.