Peter Richards
Visual Arts
Born in Cardiff in 1970, Peter Richards was educated at the University of Wales, Cardiff, (BA fine art) before completing his M.Phil. ‘Representations of Representations’, at the University of Ulster, Belfast in 1998. His first solo exhibition, Corrective Perspective, curated by Hugh Mullholland, was at the Context Gallery, Derry in 1996, as part of Beyond Borders Plus. Since that time he has exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions both in Britain/Ireland and internationally.
Solo Exhibitions (selected): 2014 – Intuitive actions, common attributes and isolated incidents, Millennium Court Arts Centre, Portadown (UK) 2012 – an elective family tree, The Naughton Gallery at Queen’s, Belfast – Download Catalogue PDF (UK); 2007 – Peter Richards, Gymnasium Gallery, Berwick upon Tweed (UK); 2006 – Peter Richards, Studio Lipoli & Lopez, Rome (IT); Paused II, Carnegie Museum & Art Gallery, Larne(UK); 2005 – Richards, ZDSLU Gallery, Ljubljana (SI); 2004 – Live, live art, Cornerhouse, Manchester (UK); Paused, Millennium Court Arts Centre, Portadown (UK); 2003 – Take two: little action, Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast (UK); Recent Works, Droichead Art Centre, Drogheda (IE); 2002 – Recent Works (concurrent with show by Anthony Gormely), Model Arts Centre/Niland Gallery, Sligo (IE); Memorials, Belfast Exposed, Belfast (UK); 2000 – Cartoons, Proposition Gallery, Belfast (UK); 1999 – Another Something Other, Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast (UK); 1996 – Corrective Perspective, Context Gallery, Derry (UK).
Group Exhibitions (selected): 2014: Voices Travel, curator Chin-ming, Lee & Brian Kennedy, Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan (TW); Art of the Troubles, Wolverhampton Art Gallery (UK); Nearby and Faraway, F.E McWilliam Gallery & Studio, Banbridge (UK); Art of the Troubles, Ulster Museum, Belfast (UK) – Video interview; The Far Away Neabry, F.E Mc William Gallery (UK); 2012 – Les Intermittences du coeur, EX ELETTROFONICA, Rome (IT); Nepotism +1, Platform Arts, Belfast (UK); Oriel Davis Gallery, Powys (UK); 2011 – 26 Treasures, Ulster Museum, Belfast (UK); Revolution, Galerie Deadfly, Berlin (DE); 2010 – Elective Perspective, Galeria Arsenal, Bialystok (PL); A View from Napoleon’s Nose, Kao Yuan Arts Center, Kaohsuing (TW); 2009 – RHA Annual, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin (IE); 2007 – Tides, Regina Gouger Miller Gallery, Pittsburgh (US); Vailartis – Arttakesthestreets, Grupo Forja & La Sala Naranja, Valencia (ES); Fix 2007, PS & Catalyst Arts, Belfast (UK); 2006 – Dogs Have No Religion, curator R. Drury, Czech Museum of Fine Art, Prague (CZ); Through Our Eyes, The Painting Center, New York (US); 2005 – The Nature of Things – A Long Weekend, Northern Irish Exhibition at the 51st Venice Biennial, Venice (IT); The Belfast Way, Herzlyia Museum, Tel Aviv (IL); Artistas del Belfast, La Sala Naranja, Valencia (ES); 2003 – Think Over, Rialto Sambrogio, Rome (IT); Periferias, Huesco, (ES); Return, The National Gallery, Goethe Institute, Dublin (IE); 2000 – L’art dans le monde, Paris Musées, Pont Alexandre III, Paris, (FR); The National Review of Live Art, The Arches, Glasgow (UK); The notice day in this factory is Thursday, Het Consortium, Amsterdam (NL); Bruce Barber, Peter Richards & Vallentin Torrens, curator J. Swidinski, Galeria Dzialan, Warsaw (PL); Interakcje 2000, curator J. Swidinski, Piotrkow Trybunalski & Wroclaw (PL); 1999 – New Contemporaries 99, South London Gallery & Liverpool Biennial (UK); Through A Glass Darkly, Het Consortium, Amsterdam (NL); 1998 – ASHOWABOUTTIME, Milch, London (UK); NI gulp, curator W. Baerwald, Plug In Gallery, Winnipeg (CA); Art From Belfast, Idaho Gallery, Chicago (US); Photo 98, Hull Time Based Arts (UK); Still to Real, Transmission, Glasgow (UK); 1997 – L’Événement Oblique, two-person with Marie-Andre Rho, Tangente, Montreal (CA); European Couples and Others, Transmission, Glasgow (UK); Phooey, The 3 Month Gallery, Liverpool (UK); 1996 – 2e Recontre International d’art Performance, Quebec (CA).
Richards’s studio practice is primarily engaged with the processes of constructing representations of existing representations, usually working with combinations of photography, video and performance. Regularly working with antiquated technologies, such as the Camera Obscurra or Pinhole Camera Richards has explored durational aspects of the early photographic techniques, creating works with exposure times ranging from several minutes to hours, rather than fractions of a second. Throughout his practice Richards has worked creating collaborative actions and processes that themselves create visual records of the duration of the collaborative activities.