Richard Harrison: Elemental

Friedrichs Pontone is thrilled to present Elemental, the first solo exhibition in New York of works by the acclaimed contemporary artist Richard Harrison, on view from 13 April to 14 May 2023. 

Born in Liverpool in 1954, Harrison studied Medieval History at Cambridge University before receiving a BFA and MFA in Painting from Chelsea School of Art. The critic Brian Sewell was an early champion of Harrison's work, recognizing its committed, insistent nature. He described the artist as 'a visionary prophet' and his paintings as 'big, bold, beautiful, and threatening.' 

The exhibition will feature a selection of Harrison's recent works, showcasing his signature style of bold colors, dynamic compositions, and intricate layers. Drawing inspiration from sources as diverse as the natural world, the urban landscape, and the history of abstract art, Harrison's paintings are a masterclass in color and form. With a career spanning over three decades, Richard Harrison has established himself as one of the leading artists of his generation. His work combines a rigorous formal approach with a deep engagement with nature and the history of art, resulting in a body of work that is both visually stunning and intellectually stimulating.

Harrison's paintings are known for their vibrant hues, ranging from bold primaries to delicate pastels, which create a sense of movement and energy on the canvas. His compositions are equally dynamic, with sweeping arcs, jagged lines, and geometric shapes interlocking in a complex dance of form and space. These are Romantic paintings, concerned with struggle, the 'sublime' and intense emotion. They are rooted in the artist's desire to experience more than the everyday and a frustration with the tedium of a highly mediated and disassociated world. He aligns himself with his historical heroes: Goya's somber imaginings, Turner's evocations of elemental power and Bacon's existential despair. He sees them as fellow outsiders enacting a Nietzschean contest for mastery of the self. We see him as the mounted figure carving a path through a sea of paint.

Harrison's works are rich in color and texture with generous lashings of paint, which ebb and flow on the canvas reflecting turbulence and often violent upheaval. His paintings are awesome in scale; their content exaggerated by the vigorous and robust handling of voluminous layers of paint adeptly manipulated to create a dynamic expression of form and color which resonate all-over the canvas thus underpinning the powerful emotional and visionary themes ever present in the artist's compositions. The artist strives for an intensely uncompromising and powerful effect, which he describes as 'no half measures'. Using the language of abstraction to capture the essence of the natural world, his paintings evoke the play of light and shadow, the movement of wind and water, and the textures of rocks and trees. They are at once abstract and representational, inviting the viewer to experience the landscape in a new way.