Richard Moon
Moon’s work re-contextualizes various found imagery, taken largely from early photographic sources and re-interpreted in oil paint or etching through the means of preparatory collage. Images that are distanced by time and corrupted through manipulation produce an effect both of familiarity and uncertainty. The association with photography brings with them effects of loss, longing and nostalgia that is often experienced when looking at such imagery.
Incorporating this source material as above creates a dialogue with the history of collage in fine art. It also influences the poses, facial expressions, colours and compositional devices of the work. The long exposure times of Daguerreotypes, the muted monochrome of early photography, photomontage compositions and the vibrant colours of early 20th century portrait photographers such as Nickolas Muray have all contributed to his decision making processes. Yet his work itself is not anachronistic; on the contrary, the use of outmoded imagery in his work belies its very modernity. Contemporary popular culture is full of repetitions, revisions and re-interpretations of past imagery and culture, but since it all appears mingled together with new trends driven forward by technological innovations, the result is a strange hybrid of sources somewhat akin to Freud’s the Uncanny.
It is through these diverse influences that he is able to produce an appearance of narrative, yet I explain nothing. This invites the viewer to speculate and deduce their own interpretation of the work and the multiple meanings on offer.
Education
2002 – 2005 – The Royal Academy Schools, Post-graduate Diploma, Fine Art
1999 – 2002 – Camberwell College of Art, BA (hons) Degree, Painting (1st Class)
1998 – 1999 – Chelsea College of Art and Design, Portfolio Preparation
Solo Exhibitions
2012 | Asa Nisi Masa, Rathbone Art Studios, London |
2010 | Plastic Time, Madder 139, London |
2007 | Kin, The Wyer Gallery, London The Tower, Klinkhammer Projects, Dusseldorf |
2006 | New Paintings, The Wyer gallery, London |
Group Exhibitions
2015 | Reconstructed Mind, Skipwiths, London |
2014 | Chinese Whispers, Gallerie Nasty Alice, Eindhoven DrAwn 2gether, Gig (Galerie I’m Gartenhaus), Munich Summer Exhibition, The Royal Academy of Arts, London Etchings, The Café Gallery, The Royal Academy of Arts, London |
2013 | Summer Exhibition, The Royal Academy of Arts, London |
2011 | Polemically Small, Orleans House Gallery, London |
2009 | New London School, Galerie Schuster, Berlin |
2008 | The Past is History (part 2), Changing Roles Gallery, Rome The Past is History (part 1), Changing Role Gallery, Naples New London School, Mark Moore Gallery, Santa Monica, CA The Future Can Wait, Atlantis Gallery, London |
2007 | Figure, Sarah Myerscough Gallery, London Salon Nouveau, Engholm Engelhorn Galerie, Vienna |
2006 | New London Kicks I1, Wooster Projects, New York City John Moores 24, finalist, The Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool The Celest Art Prize, finalist, The Truman Brewery, London New London Kicks, Soho House, New York City New Paintings, The Wyer Gallery, London |
Awards
2006 Short-listed for John Moores 24
2006 Short-listed for Celeste Art Prize
Collections
The Saatchi collection, London; the Javier Baz collection, Denver; the Roger Taylor collection, London; the Paul and Alison Myners Collection, London
Publications (articles, reviews and interviews)
2011 | Aesthetic Pathways (volume 2, number 1), Standing Grounded: Heidegger’s The Origin of the Work of Art and Contemporary Painting by Magdelena Wisnowska, p.69 to 89 |
2011 | Notion Magazine (Issue no. 50), Dialogues (Richard Moon), p.16 |
2009 | My Name is Charles Saatchi and I am an Artoholic, Published by Phaidon, p.161 & 162 |
2009 | The Evening Standard, Confessions of an Art Collector (interview with Charles Saatchi), August 2nd 2009, p.18 |
2009 | AXA Art Review, Collecting the Contemporary for Tomorrow (interview with Alison Myners) p.6 & 8 |
2009 | The Guardian Guide, Exhibitions (review of The Golden Record Exhibition, Lincoln) 21st to 27th March 2009, p.39 |
2003 | The Evening Standard Metro Life Magazine, Art (review of Future Map 02 Exhibition, at the London Institute Gallery, p.55 |