Artist Bio: Renee Radell

 

This artist bio is arranged by decade to provide information about the dramatic life developments of American contemporary artist Renee Radell. With roots in Detroit, Michigan and trained at the Detroit Society of Arts & Crafts, Radell was a consistent award-winning watercolorist represented in the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Dearborn art Museum and the Walter P. Chrysler Museum.

 

While raising a family of five with husband and sculptor Lloyd Radell, she achieved mainstream representation in the New York art scene in the 1960s, where she was critically acclaimed for her powerful social commentary figurative paintings during the time of the Vietnam War and social unrest.  Radell moved to New York in 1984 where she continued a prolific painting career until the present time.

 

Over a 70 year painting career, Renee Radell has never ceased to delight audiences and collectors with her signature combination of consummate aesthetic prowess and insightful comments concerning the human condition.

 

(Scroll down for details by decade)

A woman in a white top and headband.
Teenager in Detroit

Early Years

Renee Radell was born in Birmingham, Alabama and moved to Detroit as a toddler. She became an award-winning watercolorist while attending the prestigious art school of Detroit Society of Arts & Crafts.

 

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A man sitting in a chair with his head turned to the side.
Model Posing (1937)
A young man is painting in an art studio.
Midwest recognition

1950s

For Renee Radell, life in the 1950s meant beginning a family of five children in rural Michigan while attracting critical acclaim for her move to social commentary figurative oil painting on the path to New York.

 

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A painting of an abstract scene with orange and green colors.
Confinement (1954)
A woman standing in front of an art work.
New York mainstream

1960s

Our artist bio reveals international recognition and mainsteam New York gallery representation in the turbulent 1960s for Radell with insightful themes of American family life amidst the angst of a war-torn political environment.

 

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A painting of a woman holding a baby
Profit of War (1966)
A newspaper with the cover of a magazine.
Sociopolitical issues

1970s

For the artist, the 1970s was a balanced journey into painting societal confusion and search for meaning, while maintaining positive elements of hope for the progress of humanity.

 

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A painting of four men sitting at a table.
Renee 2
A woman in a hat and gloves standing next to a table.
Move to Greenwich Village

1980s

The allure of the New York contemporary art scene caused a move to Greenwhich Village where Radell created new allegorical paintings while teaching at Parsons School of Design and  cityscape and landscape painting in pleinair  Europe.

 

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A painting of a room with people in the background
Confrontation at 28th Street (1989)
A woman saluting in front of the louvre museum.
European adventures

1990s

For Renee Radell, the 1990s was a period of tremendous productivity from her Manhattan East Village  art studio, creating  multiple series of ” visual morality plays” using myth, symbol and allegory

 

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A painting of horses and people in the background.
Carousel (1990)
A woman standing in front of a painting.
East Village studio

2000s

Her studio move to the vibrant Manhattan Chelsea art community in the new millennium was for Radell a challenge to to expand her allegorical and surrealism imagery to murals and triptychs.

 

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A painting of horses and birds in the water.
Impending Storm in Paradise with Shades of Durer (2010)
A woman in white shirt and black jacket near table with bird figurines.
New challenges

2010+

Since 2010, Renee Radell continues her visual search for life’s meaning through new  creative dimensions, such as heightened use of mixed media and sculpture, and addressing color, form and composition in multiple painting series of abstract art.

 

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A painting of a red and green abstract background
Transformation (2013)