Richard Whitehead is a graduate of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. While working in New York, he made several experimental art films as a member of the Millennium Independent Filmmakers Association. He moved to Barcelona, Spain, in 1983 to continue his art. Richard has won numerous prizes and scholarships from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, as well as awards from other competitions in the eastern United States. His work has been exhibited in San Francisco, New York, Philadelphia, Tennessee, and Delaware, and in Antwerp, Belgium, and Murcia and Barcelona, Spain. In 1983, he conceived and performed "Passive Energy States," a conceptual art performance in New York City.

In 1989, Richard returned to the United States and in 1989, he settled in Knoxville, Tennessee. In 2001 and 2003, the Clarksville Art Museum of Tennessee featured several of Richard's works, along with other artists of the Kaleidoscope Group. He has also been included in group shows at the Oakridge Fine Arts Museum and the Knoxville Art Museum. A retrospective of Richard's art was celebrated at the Fountain City Art Center of Knoxville, Tennessee, in 2005.

The third national exhibit of "Straight Lines and Faces are Illusory" with Richard and Randall Whitehead was held at Susan Key Galleries in Knoxville in January 2000. Other national exhibits include Pro Arts of Oakland, California, which included an early showing over the Internet; "The Unbroken Line" at the Museum of American Art in Philadelphia, along with the Plastic Club and the PAFA Fellowship also in Philadelphia.

In the Knoxville area he has shown with The Arts & Culture Alliance of Greater Knoxville, A-1 Lab Art Space, Farragut Arts Council, The Art Market, Kaleidoscope, and the Liz-Beth Gallery. Most recent exhibits have been with the Nomad Gallery of Knoxville, Bill Shores Gallery of Chattanooga, Johnson City Arts Council, and Nelson Fine Art Gallery of Johnson City. Presently representing Richard's work are the Pigeon River Art Works/Jim Gray Gallery and the Shady Grove Gallery, both in Tennessee, and The Artful Home: A Source & Guide for Residential Art of Guild.com. In 2006 Richard won second prize in Knoxville's Art Alliance's National Juried Exhibit, and awarded him an exhibit for October of 2007at their Emporium Gallery.
http://www.richardleewhitehead.com