Richard Burton (b.1984) lives and works in London. He studied at the Royal College of Art (2019–21) and Slade School of Fine Art (2004–08). He is the recipient of the Abbey Fellowship in Painting, British School at Rome (2022). He thinks of painting as a form of world-building, connected to writers such as Philip K. Dick and David Foster Wallace. His imagery is fed by synthetic environments and the emotional distance they generate. There is an element of aspirational living, which he blends with traces of sci-fi to produce a kind of numb, restrained longing. For him the repetition of upholstered forms speaks to our constant seeking of comfort, and the impossibility of that need being wholly realised.
Solo exhibitions include Uphold, Kristin Hjellegjerde, Berlin (2024); Over-Simulation, Galerie Mighela Shama, Geneva (2023); Seinesgleichen Geschieht / The Like of It Now Happens, Galerie Norbert Arns, Cologne (2022); Retrovisore, Taymour Grahne Projects, London (2022).
Group exhibitions include (Upcoming) Contemporary Domesticity II, Cromwell Place, Wing Gallery (2024); Aggregate, Soho Revue, London, UK (2023); Enter Art Fair, with Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark (2023); Tomorrow is Tomorrow is Tomorrow, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London (2023); Down in The Woods, Up to The Sky, Double Q Gallery, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong (2023); Art Genève, Galerie Mighela Shama, Geneva, (2022); Psychic Self- Defence, Mighela Shama, Geneva (2023): Vacation II, Gallery Vacancy, Shanghai, (2022); what Now?, PM/AM Gallery, London (2022); New Contemporaries, South London Gallery (2021); London Grads Now, Saatchi Gallery, London (2021); Incubator 21, 2 Chiltern Street, London (2021); A Missed Encounter, Mighela Shama, Geneva (2021); Reigen, Fabian Lang, Zürich (2021); RCA Degree Show, Cromwell Place, London (2021); Urvanity Art Fair, Madrid (2021).
Highlights and Collections
Richard Burton was awarded two-month residency by Galerie Mighela Shama, Geneve in 2023 and prior to this was awarded the Abby Fellowship in painting at the British School at Rome (2022). Burton also received the Bloomberg New Contemporaries Art Program in 2021 as well as the Basil H. Alkazzi scholarship at the Royal College of Art in London in 2019.