Dean Richardson studied at prestigious institutions including the Newark Academy of Fine Arts, Newark, New Jersey; Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI; Brooklyn Museum School, Brooklyn, NY; and Hochschule fur Bildende Kunst, Berlin, Germany. Exhibitions of his work have been shown at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; The Newport Art Museum, Newport, RI; and the Boston Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA. Throughout his career he received a Max Beckman Memorial Scholarship to the Brooklyn Museum School (1956-57); a Fulbright Scholarship, Berlin, Germany (1957-58); a Guggenheim Fellowship (1962); and a Mellon Grant (1986).
Notable collections include the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; Fuller Craft Museum (formerly Brockton Art Museum), Brockton, MA; the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, Cooperstown, NY; and the Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, ME; among others.