Richard Stankiewicz was born in 1922, Philadelphia, PA. At a very young age of two, Richard lost his father in a railroad accident. Richard Stankiewicz’s mother left Philadelphia after her husband’s railroad accident and the family settled in Detroit, Michigan. Richard Stankiewicz grew up in a predominately Polish and German immigrant local community. He attended Cass Technical High School studying mechanical drafting, engineering and art. Stankiewicz was offered a scholarship by Cranbrook in 1941, however he had to enlist in the Navy as unable to afford college. Richard was discharged from the Navy in 1947 and made his way to New York City. Stankiewicz departed for Europe via the GI Bill to study art at Atelier Fernand Leger and sculpture with Ossip Zadkine. In 1952, Richard became a member of the Hansa Gallery founded by students of Hans Hofmann. Richard Stankiewicz supported himself with various freelance drafting projects while experimenting with metal. Stankiewicz continued working with metal and eventually began showing more regularly in the 1950s at Hansa Gallery, the Whitney, Venice Biennale and even the Stable Gallery in 1959.
In 1962 he left New York for a quieter life in Huntington, Massachusetts. Stankiewicz continued to exhibit successfully on an international level until his death in 1983. Richard Stankiewicz’s unique style in scrap metal combines whimsical, animation and a sense of robust abstraction, surrealism and even modernism. Richard Stankiewicz’s works are in many important art museums and collections, including: MoMA, Whitney, Guggenheim, Smithsonian, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Israel Museum, Hirshhorn Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art and Albright-Knox Gallery.