‘Standing Lady Shadow #R1-R9” is an early acrylic on canvas work by Richard Hambleton, executed in 1984. The work maintains a haunting quality to it, executed with vigorous brushstrokes and splashes of black paint on the surface to capture the artist’s iconic approach to surreal figuration. As part of his signature "Shadowman" paintings executed on buildings worldwide, these silhouettes of anonymous figures have become the iconic trademark of Hambleton, resurfacing throughout his artistic career again and again.

Along with close friends Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, Canadian-born painter Richard Hambleton (b. 1954) pioneered the 1980s Lower East Side art movement in New York, generating buzz with his “public art” painted on unexpected street corners as well as his street art inspired canvases, which were exhibited in major galleries. Using cryptic imagery and dark aesthetics, Hambleton has explored a “Mass Murder” concept with his police chalk outlines and victim inspired paintings, which led to the development of his “Shadowman” paintings. Hambleton studied Painting and Art History at the Emily Carr School of Art in Vancouver, Canada, earning his BFA in 1975. That same year he founded the gallery and performance space, “Pumps” Center for Alternative Art in Vancouver. In 2011, Andy Valmorbida and Vladimir Restoin Roitfeld presented a retrospective of his work in New York, NY. His work was also featured in the seminal 2011 Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA exhibition ‘Art in the Streets’.