‘Beyond Imagination,’ Richard J. Watson’s new exhibit at Ultra Silk Gallery, showcases wearable art

There are massive abstract pieces by Philadelphia artist Richard J. Watson on the walls of the Ultra Silk Gallery that seem to be visionary accompaniments to a concert by Sun Ra, the late avant-garde jazz keyboardist.

Sun Ra and his Arkestra presented shows that the National Endowment of the Arts described as linking “the African American experience with ancient Egyptian mythology and outer space,” and Watson’s eight-foot-tall panels might appear like the musings of a space journey to some.

But art is in the eye of the beholder. Looking at the same pieces, Watson said he was thinking of an underwater world showing biological elements of the sea.

This new exhibit by Watson, “Beyond Imagination: Wear-ever You Are — Fashionable Expressions of Richard J. Watson,” features traditional art pieces, both paintings and mixed-media collages, hanging on the walls.

At the same time, Watson’s art is also painted on clothing hung on rotating mannequins inside the fairly new Ultra Silk Art Gallery at 3808 Lancaster Ave. in the Powelton section of West Philadelphia.

There are jackets and vests adorned with rhinestones and painted with dragonflies, flowers or otherworldly figments of his imagination. There is a long, denim caftan that has been painted in blues and greens. “There are jackets I have converted into walking energy,” the artist said.

The exhibit opens Friday with a reception from 5 to 8 p.m. It is scheduled to be up through January 2024.

Rashida Watson, who owns the Silk Tent International Boutique, a couple of blocks west, at 3860 Lancaster Ave., opened the Ultra Silk Gallery in May 2022.

As someone who once studied art herself, Rashida Watson said when the former Art on the Avenue gallery, at 3808 Lancaster, became available, she seized the opportunity to start her own gallery.

“Richard is very charismatic,” Rashida Watson said. “People are really drawn into how he expresses himself, and the fact that he’s not stagnant. He addresses his own personal creativity as opposed to what people demand.” She said she and Richard Watson “are related in spirit” only.

Richard Watson, 77, was born in North Carolina and was 11 when he moved to Philadelphia.

He was a student at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, or PAFA, when he took his sketch pad to draw the teens protesting segregation at Girard College in 1965. It was then a private boarding school for white boys in grades 1-12 in North Philadelphia.

Watson was detained by police who questioned him about his sketches. He said that experience was a factor in his teaming up with the late Philadelphia artist Walter Edmonds to paint murals depicting the Black struggle against oppression on the walls of the sanctuary of the Church of the Advocate.

» READ MORE: ‘Portals + Revelations’ exhibit examines artist Richard J. Watson’s works that some are calling genius

Watson said he started painting on T-shirts and sweatshirts in the 1970s.

And he painted on fashion that such entertainers as Frankie Beverly and Maze have worn on stage.

Painting on clothing goes has a long history, he said, noting that artists in Japan have decorated kimonos for hundreds of years.

Despite being 77, he is far from slowing down, and his art seems to be growing in demand. He has a joint exhibit set for February at the Moody Jones Gallery in Glenside, and he is in talks with gallery owners in New York and Massachusetts.

“I’ve been collecting art for a long time and I think there are some Philadelphia artists whose names need to be more broadly spoken about in terms of being artists of note,” said Adrian Moody, who is co-owner of the Moody Jones Gallery with his wife, Robyn Jones.

Of Watson, Moody said, “He should be spoken about as a recognized artist throughout this country, period.”

In addition to Watson, the February exhibit will feature works by R.L. Washington and James Atkins, whom Moody described as the “old guard” of Philadelphia artists.

“Beyond Imagination: Wear-ever You Are — Fashionable Expressions of Richard J. Watson” will be on exhibit at the Ultra Silk Gallery, 3808 Lancaster Ave., Philadelphia 19104 from Dec. 8 through January. For more information, go to ultrasilkgallery.com. or call: 215-824-6556.