A native of Philadelphia, artist Rick Briggs moved to Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in 1981, three years after attending the Tyler School of Art (BFA). A scholarship from SUNY Purchase followed in 1992 (MFA). That same year, he received a fellowship from Millay Arts. Beginning in 1983, in an exhibition sponsored by White Columns, Briggs began exhibiting in various group shows in New York venues such as Dorsky, in a show curated by Joe Fyfe, Paula Cooper, Ronald Feldman, Pierogi, and James Biederman’s N3 Project Space. He also participated in “Current Undercurrent” (1997) and “Open House” (2004), curated by Charlotta Kotik, at the Brooklyn Museum’s exhibition series Working in Brooklyn. More recently, his work has been featured in the exhibitions “Party at Phong’s” (2008), curated by Chris Martin, at Janet Kurnatowski, and “Making Do” (2008), curated by Robert Storr at the Yale University School of Art (the only painter selected in the three-year history of the annual exhibition). In 2005, he had his first solo exhibition, “Painter Man,” at the Sarah Bowen Gallery in Brooklyn and more recently, a second solo show at Valentine in 2012. In addition to the Guggenheim Fellowship, Briggs is a 2012 recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant.