Richard Blackwell’s latest exhibition, Plural, holds up a fractured mirror to the simultaneously physical and digital quality of contemporary experience. Continuing his highly graphic lexicon of line, form, and visual illusion, Blackwell’s new series of wall sculptures and print images appear to exist within active states of multi-layered being. Creating conditions in which multiple distinct elements and perspectives can coexist in one form, his work underscores the presence of various viewpoints within a single given culture or time.
Using data simulations driven by principles of physics as his starting point, the resulting images mimic forms caught in a temporal flutter. Much like the rippling quality of moiré patterns found in digital or print media, where the visual artefacts of fine lines or pixels play tricks on the eye, Blackwell’s images suggest a sense of time condensed and realities blurred.Robotically fabricated and meticulously spray-painted in a way that places Blackwell somewhere between painter and inkjet printer, the resulting textures and colour variations of these works are mesmerising in their intricacy and attention to detail. On approach, they appear to shift and shimmer in response to the movements of the viewer as they pass by.
Plural invites audiences to engage with the convoluted dance between manual craftsmanship and advances in automation, reflecting on the nature of making in an age of increasing technological mediation. This exhibition is less a celebration and more a contemplation of the pluralistic condition of contemporary life, where discipline, perception, and technology collide to create something both unsettling and intriguing.
We hope you can join us and the artist to celebrate at the exhibition opening party onSaturday 10 August from 1 - 3pm appreciated
ARTIST PROFILE: Richard Blackwell is an Australian artist based in Sydney, where he holds the position of Advanced Manufacturing Lab Coordinator and Built Environment Tutor at the University of NSW Design Futures Lab. He also runs Studio Studio, a collective studio in Canberra ACT. Blackwell was employed as the Assistant Professor of the Foundation Woodshop and Digital Lab at VCU Arts in Qatar from 2016-2019. Having received a Fulbright Scholarship in 2012, Blackwell completed his Masters in Fine Art at the School of Art Institute of Chicago in 2014 and practised extensively in the USA until his appointment as Assistant Professor, Foundation Woodshop and Digital Lab at Virginia Commonwealth University Arts in Qatar in 2016. In 2011 Blackwell exhibited a major series GROTTO, an exhibition in 3 volumes, which was shown in Canberra, Melbourne and Chicago, supported through the Australia Council of the Arts. He has exhibited widely, facilitated artist residency programs and set up various artist run initiatives in Australia, USA, and the Middle East. Richard Blackwell's work has been collected for ACT Legislative Assembly, Artbank, NAB Collection and the Justin Art House Museum and he has undertaken several public commissions including the Mayfare Apartments, Canberra, 65 Mary Street, Brisbane and the NEXUS M+A Laneway Project, Brisbane, both undertaken with Urban Art Projects.
