Numinosity

Richard Louis Perri (aka Luckey) artistically captures the soul of urban San Francisco. Eschewing the more guilded scenes of the city, Perri in his paintings seeks to portray forgotten figments of little-known structures. His iconic Red’s Java House, for example, displays a cafe of San Francisco’s waterfront reminiscent of the city’s fabled maritime past, now, alas, no longer. In an instant, the painting conjures up both a lost scenario and a relic of this past. One is able to ingest the continuation of a communitarian gathering-place that was once part of the vital fabric of San Francisco’s maritime world. An accomplished colorist, Perri’s paintings portray a palette of the city’s colors that are not usually identified with San Francisco. The urban world that Perri paints is reminiscent of vibrant Mediterranean cities. San Francisco is a multi-faceted metropolis. Some of its fascinating facets are captured in the art of Richard L. Perri. (Charles A. Fracchia).

Well, it was too good to last, and it didn’t. You might date the end of the old watefront with the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, when the old Embarcadero Freeway, which was ugly as sin, was torn down. Suddenly, the waterfront and all its denizens—the dives, the flop house hotels, the bars, were out in the sunlight, blinking in a new day. They built a beautiful ball park on King Street, not far from Bouncers, a bar so tough that even bad guys were afraid to rob it. The customers would beat them up. Who needed cops? One by one, the denizens of places like Red’s Java House and other waterfront joints were replaced by patrons who wore designer jeans instead of Frisko jeans. A lot of the old coffee joints closed up. The ones that remained became remnants of their former self. The waterfront is much better looking these days, much safer, much different. And much has been lost. (Carl Nolte)

In many of our minds the images of certain places or dwellings occur in dreams or as backdrop to waking experience. Imbued with subtle yet powerful feelings and meanings, they may represent a more ancient and inclusive way of thinking. Richard Louis Perri has worked for many years, continually refining his art. Here he has given us an array of diners which have in bygone years been temporary hearths to unknown numbers of workers, artists, and vagrants who gravitated to them. In his paintings we see them in timelessness, ringing with numinosity. Those of us who were born in San Francisco and have had the good fortune to grow old recall many such places. If there is indeed a universal memory, as some believe, it is by such icons that our city will be remembered. (Sterling Bunnell, M.D.)