In a recent series of paintings, Richard Gorman presents an exploratory new take on the “emotional geometry” for which he has become celebrated in the past two decades. Approached with a lightness of touch, the works carry a renewed sense of movement and immediacy: angular, interlocking blocks of colour seem to spiral outwards, while radial shapes pirouette on their axis.
 
As Gorman’s understanding and mastery of colour has deepened, he has begun to use it not only as a harmonic device, but as an active and animating element in his paintings: flat blocks of colour step to an offbeat rhythm, laid down in a jazz cool palette. Giving a nod to the gestural, expressionist works with which Gorman began his career in the 1980s, this recent body of work takes on a more liberated, looser and freer painterly approach, all while demonstrating the intuitive balancing of colour, form and line that his work is prized for. 

Richard Gorman RHA
b. 1946, Dublin, Ireland 

A gifted colourist, Richard Gorman is best known for his paintings and works on paper exploring the dynamic interplay between geometric forms. The artist’s work has been greatly influenced by his frequent and extended trips to Japan – for over 25 years, he has visited the family-run Iwano paper factory in Echizen to produce his handmade kozo washi paper. Produced on both a monumental and intimate scale, these paper works offer a delicacy and fragility in counterpoint to his more robust oils on canvas. Both strands of Gorman’s practice draw their power from the compositional tension between increasingly prominent and boldly simplified blocks of colour, often with a subtly playful or humorous undertone. 

Solo exhibitions include: dalkey, Kerlin Gallery (2020); Kerlin Gallery, Dublin;  Keijo, Chigasaki Museum, Japan (2019); CASA, Castletown House, Co Kildare (2016); KIN, The MAC, Belfast (2014); Richard Gorman, Painting and Prints, Mitaka City Gallery of Art & Ashikaga City Museum of Art Japan (Both 2010); Shuffle, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin (2009); Oeuvres nouvelles, Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris (2007); Paintings and Paper Works, Koriyama City Museum of Art Koriyama, Japan (2002); Big Blue, Mural Koriyama City Museum of Art Fukushima, Japan (2002); Nine Paintings, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin and Crawford Art Gallery, Cork, (2001); Made in Japan, Limerick City Art Gallery, Limerick, Ireland (2000) and Mitami City Gallery of Art and Mitaka City Art Foundation, Japan (1999). 

Gorman’s work is represented in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; Koriyama City Museum of Art, Japan; Centre of Contemporary Graphic Art, Fukishima, Japan; New York Public Library; Limerick City Gallery and The Ulster Museum, Belfast and in private and corporate collections worldwide.