J. Richard Briggs (b. 1990) is a painter based in Portland, Oregon, working primarily in acrylic on wood panel. His work moves between large-scale Pacific Northwest landscapes and figurative paintings rooted in biblical and mythological narrative.

The landscapes are painted from direct observation across Oregon and the Pacific Northwest — the Columbia River Gorge, the high desert around Smith Rock, the coast, the forests of the Cascades. The figurative paintings draw on Scripture, hagiography, and ancient story, sitting at the intersection of contemporary painting and the iconographic tradition. Both bodies of work share an attention to scale, to light, and to the feeling of standing before something larger than yourself.

His influences include Byzantine iconography, rabbinical Jewish storytelling, Eastern European sculpture, and 20th-century American regionalism.

Briggs studied representational art at Watts Atelier and Hebrew language and Jewish art history at the University of Haifa and Hebrew University in Jerusalem. His exhibitions include “Radical Hospitality” (Frame and Hang Art Gallery, 2018) and “Subversive Faith” (Liberty Station, San Diego, 2023). He is represented by GO Gallery (formerly Guardino Gallery) in Portland’s Alberta Arts District.