Richard Dwyer – Distance
23rd November to 21st December 2010
Open eve 23rd November 7-9pm
The exhibition comprises a selection of paintings which fuse abstraction and landscape painting. The work evokes the undulating form and light which underlies nature. However, it is the mysterious quality of an unknown world that ultimately emerges.
Richard Dwyer MA PHD
“Art has always been an expressive outlet for me. Initially I trained in what was then the art department of Waterford Regional Technical College (1992-1995). While there I explored more avant-garde media like video art as well as performance. My resultant diploma show incorporated elements of both. After a few years working in Dublin, I returned to university to study painting at the University of Ulster in Belfast. After this I completed an MA in media studies in Coleraine (2000-2002). The MA thesis explored the work of video artist Bill Viola and the manner in which his work chimed with religious painting from the Renaissance and Baroque periods. My studies continued in The University of Kent where I completed a PhD in Art History (2003-2009). My research was concerned with contemporary artists and architects who commemorate the victims of political violence. Though I took part in group exhibitions during this time, I have now returned to painting full time. This ‘return’ was partially influenced by my studies and the eclectic artworks I researched therein.
Ironically, though I have an extensive awareness of art theory, I have come to see the creation of art as something which cannot always be explained or theorized. Art is its own language to which we come in our own capacity and with our own associations. My works often traverse a line between abstraction and organic form/figuration. The tension between the realized and unrealized fundamentally underscores life. We are constantly moving in cycles of awareness and it is often that which we cannot entirely comprehend which attracts us. The potential in that which is not fully revealed reflects that in ourselves. As Edmund Burke (1729-1797) relayed in his seminal work ‘On the Sublime’, in painting it was often those works which heightened the ambiguity of natural form which were the most alluring to the viewer. It is this which I try to express within my work. I have exhibited in group shows in Belfast and Canterbury and paint in a range of media including acrylic, oils and pastel. In my paintings I favour building up glazes and routinely allow the forms to surface as the work progresses. Though recently I have begun to reintroduce more readily familiar subjects, the process remains largely intuitive.”