“I was interested in portraying someone at more than one point in their life; taking the Cubists idea of multiple viewpoints and applying it to time’.
Richard Wathen’s recent paintings depict figures lost in moments of contemplation, listening at walls, pretending to sleep, blowing soap bubbles. The works invite ambiguity. Gender, age, location, time, etc are uncertain. “I was interested in portraying someone at more than one point in their life; taking the Cubists idea of multiple viewpoints and applying it to time’. ‘At no point is their potential narrative complexity figuratively explained or made pictorially palatable’. (1) ‘He creates characters open enough in referential remit to enable ample room for the viewers self-projection’. (2) The figures seem fragile, lost , perhaps considering the incommunicable sensations of being alive.
Solo Exhibitions include MOSTYN Wales, Atlas House UK, Salon 94 NY, Max Wigram Gallery UK and L&M Arts NY. His work has been included in group shows at Blum and Poe, Hauser and Wirth, Zwirner and Wirth, LA MOCA, and Galerie Martin Janda amongst others.
Richard Wathen (b. 1971, London, UK) completed his Masters in fine Art at Chelsea School of Art in 1996. He lives and works in Suffolk UK
(1,2) Rebecca Geldard, Excerpts from her text ‘Exquisite Wierdness’ ‘New eyes every Time’ MOSTYN Exhibition Catalogue.