Richard has been based in Glasgow since 1988, and exhibits regularly with galleries in Glasgow, Dublin and London. His work sold out at its first showing in Glasgow Art Fair in 2005, and over the last two years he has had successful solo shows at Oisín Gallery, Dublin and Art Exposure Gallery, Glasgow.
He began working as an artist after graduating in Art History at York University in 1986, teaching part-time at Glasgow and Strathclyde Universities until 1995, and from 1996 to 2004 executing commissioned paintings and sculptures throughout Scotland. In Glasgow examples of his commissioned works can be seen in Rogano’s, (Exchange Place), and Corinthian (Ingram Street).
In his current paintings Richard puts people face to face with traditional art and architecture. His compositions often create a deliberately restricted view of the figures and settings, making them ambiguous or even unidentifiable. People, artworks and architecture can become like elements in a dream, the indefinable mood compounded by an atmospheric use of light and colour.
In some of his works there is an understated element of irony or humour, in the implicit contrasts between people and artworks; in others there can be a sense of timelessness, a mysterious moment when distinctions between art and reality, past and present become blurred, and each somehow seems to render the other more complete. His work gives a contemporary edge to traditional styles and imagery, raising questions about our relationship to the past, and the place of traditional art in contemporary society, both through the way that we respond to it, and the way that it is presented in museums and galleries.
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