Biography
A life that arrived late to the canvas.
Richard L. Nuñez was born March 23, 1961 in Fort Wayne, Indiana, to Esther and Henry Nuñez, both of Mescalero Apache descent. He did not learn that heritage until 2004 — his parents kept it from him, he has said, so he would not have to carry the prejudices they knew.
He is a self-taught American painter based in the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex. He paints primarily acrylic on canvas. What follows is the life behind the work — the studio years, the live nights, and the rooms that became the gallery.
1961
1961
Fort Wayne
Born March 23 to Esther and Henry Nuñez, both of Mescalero Apache descent. He would not learn that heritage until 2004.
1978
WMEE
Maintenance engineer at the Fort Wayne radio station while still at Southside High School.
1979
Southside High
Graduates. At his first wife’s urging he leaves radio and spends two decades in whatever job will hold: dishwasher, bagger, Home Depot, Montgomery Ward, forklift, bartender, stand-up, singer.
1993
Dallas holds him
Sets out for Phoenix. The car dies in Dallas. Without money for repairs, an uncle takes him in. He never leaves.
2004
Heritage
Learns he is Mescalero Apache. His parents had kept it from him, he has said, so he would not have to carry the prejudices they knew.
2005
Richard Nuñez Art
At forty-five he goes full-time and founds Richard Nuñez Art to showcase the work. Acrylic on canvas. The icons.
2007
Nine holes
A full-body Marilyn canvas is stolen from a friend’s vehicle on July 7 and returned twenty days later with nine bullet holes. He hangs the damaged painting at the front of the studio.
2008
House of Blues
At the Houston opening he paints a John Belushi portrait with Jim Belushi and Dan Aykroyd caught in the sunglasses.
2009
Aykroyd wine
Paints for Dan Aykroyd’s wine label in February — one of the few celebrity sittings dated in the public record.
2013
Studio Nuñez
Opens mid-March inside Valley View Center. The Advocate and D Magazine write the two essential Dallas features. He hangs twenty-four blank canvases and promises one a week.
Early life
Radio, then every other job.
Nuñez attended Southside High School in Fort Wayne, graduating in 1979. During high school he worked at WMEE as a maintenance engineer (1978–1979). At his first wife’s urging he left the station.
The next twenty years were a catalogue of work: dishwasher in a Mexican restaurant, grocery bagger, salesman at Home Depot and Montgomery Ward, forklift operator, bartender, stand-up comic, singer. In 1993 he set out for Phoenix. Dallas stopped the car. An uncle’s spare room became a life. Thirteen years in hospitality followed — bartender, waiter, head trainer — until he was general manager of a wine bar in Highland Village, thirty minutes from downtown. The room became a gallery.
Career
Richard Nuñez Art, 2005.
At forty-five he went full-time and founded Richard Nuñez Art to showcase the work. Renaissance drawing (Michelangelo) sits under a taste for “the icons”: Monroe, Hepburn, the Rat Pack, Jackson, Dallas athletes.
In February 2009 he painted for Dan Aykroyd’s wine label. Earlier, at the House of Blues Houston opening in October 2008, he worked a John Belushi portrait with Jim Belushi and Aykroyd caught in the sunglasses. A full-body Marilyn Monroe canvas was stolen from a friend’s vehicle on July 7, 2007 and returned twenty days later with nine bullet holes. He kept the damaged painting at the front of the studio.
Through Richard Nuñez Art he has described more than $350,000 raised from 2006 to 2013 for women-and-children causes, with one auction piece reported at $21,000. Those figures come from Dallas coverage of the auctions.
Athletes in the studio
- Roger Staubach
- Tony Romo
- Michael Irvin
- Deion Sanders
- DeMarcus Ware
- Tony Dorsett
- Dirk Nowitzki
- Jason Kidd
- Jason Terry
- Michael Johnson
- Nastia Liukin
- Tony Stewart