Glasgow International Festival of Contemporary Art
A large abstract artwork featuring squares of black and white, with coloured squares in the centre, is displayed on a wall in a light, airy space.
A large abstract artwork featuring squares of black and white, with coloured squares in the centre, is displayed on a wall.
A close up of an abstract artwork featuring patterned tiles.
A close up of an abstract artwork featuring patterned tiles
A photograph showing a wall painting of a repeating pattern of black six-pointed stars on a curved white ceiling. The stars diminish in scale from the top of the image to the bottom as the room recedes
A close-up of a complex geometric pattern composed of various triangles which come together to form hexagons, rendered in gold leaf on a plain grey concrete ceiling.
A black and white photograph showing the outline of a six-pointed star being painted in black on a white ceiling. The artist’s hand is visible in the foreground of the image and the bristles of his brush are gently compressed against the ceiling.
An open blue door in a small arched alcove opens onto a curved room. The white walls are painted with a repeating pattern of curved black triangles. Outside this door a garden is just visible along with a black cast iron railing. Sunlight streams through the door and from a window above it.
A photograph of a ceiling replete with an ornate circular alcove bordered with golden floral-styled cornicing. In the centre there is a symmetrical design in gold leaf. The shapes that make up the pattern resemble abstract flowers or avian forms.

This exhibition of new work by Turner Prize-winning artist Richard Wright responds to the architectural context of The Modern Institute’s Aird’s Lane space. 

Richard’s practice moves across drawing, glasswork, and installation. He is perhaps best-known for his site-specific and sometimes temporary wall paintings. His work is stylistically diverse, often colliding a variety of motifs and condensing them into striking repeated geometric forms or producing intricate decorative patterns which play with symmetry and perspective. Richard doesn’t consider these pieces as discreet autonomous paintings, but conceptual gestures, which consider context and architecture.

In Richard’s installations, he engages with pre-existing architecture and utilises natural light to create various luminous and transcendent effects with his detailed interventions. He has spoken about ‘drawing as a way of thinking’ – Paul Klee’s emphasis on letting images emerge organically has proved particularly influential. His work also engages with a variety of other sources: from the prog rock record sleeves of Roger Dean and Stanley Mouse to the custom painting of hot rod cars, from the concrete language of Constructivism to the English mysticism of Samuel Palmer.