CONTEMPORARY ART STOCKROOM Richard Blackwell

ARTIST COMMISSION ENQUIRY

JOIN PREVIEW LIST

Richard Blackwell's interdisciplinary approach integrates various elements, including objects, marks, observations, and processes, to convey his experiences in today's technological world. Drawing from his interests in printmaking, robotic fabrication, and advanced manufacturing, Blackwell creates elegant yet intricate wall sculptures, installations, and 2D images using unique systems of automation.

His work examines the changing dynamics of human labor and explores how technology can surpass human limitations in production processes. Reflecting on the intersection of physical and digital creation within urban landscapes, Blackwell's recent relief works, crafted from film-faced plywood, explore ideas of modularity and individual experience within architectural space.

In grappling with the impact of virtuality on social realities and the shrinking of geographical boundaries, his pieces serve as urban maps, illustrating the complex virtual spaces that increasingly shape contemporary Western existence.

My work creates an account of the experience of living and interacting in our current social reality. That experience itself is the result of countless phenomenological interactions and relationships that are mediated by technology, ideology and the concrete structure of the built environment. As experience is mediated by personal desire so is the work. In this sense, equally connected to the external, the work attempts to take note or be aware of my own desire to make art as production, and so reflect my experience of the world in my work.
Richard Blackwell, Artist Statement

Ideas of potentiality, traversal and illusion are central to Richard Blackwell’s interdisciplinary practice. Broadly his works highlight the mutable nature of materials, space and perception. Specifically they articulate the artist’s ongoing interest in the intersect between reality and the virtual. Within the clean graphic iterations of his abstract images we become aware of an intrinsic tension between the physical truth of his forms and their relationship to algorithmic chance, machine technologies and the implied. Blackwell is observing the conditions in which we negotiate an increasingly complex relationship to the digital world.
Excerpt from catalogue essay by Phe Luxford, 2022

ARTIST PROFILE:
Richard Blackwell is an Australian artist based in Sydney, where he holds the position of Advanced Manufacturing Lab Coordinator and Built Environment Tutor at the University of NSW Design Futures Lab. He also runs Studio Studio, a collective studio in Canberra ACT. Blackwell was employed as the Assistant Professor of the Foundation Woodshop and Digital Lab at VCU Arts in Qatar from 2016-2019.

Having received a Fulbright Scholarship in 2012, Blackwell completed his Masters in Fine Art at the School of Art Institute of Chicago in 2014 and practised extensively in the USA until his appointment as Assistant Professor, Foundation Woodshop and Digital Lab at Virginia Commonwealth University Arts in Qatar in 2016. In 2011 Blackwell exhibited a major series GROTTO, an exhibition in 3 volumes, which was shown in Canberra, Melbourne and Chicago, supported through the Australia Council of the Arts. He has exhibited widely, facilitated artist residency programs and set up various artist run initiatives in Australia, USA, and the Middle East.

Richard Blackwell's work has been collected for ACT Legislative Assembly, Artbank, NAB Collection and the Justin Art House Museum and he has undertaken several public commissions including the Mayfare Apartments, Canberra, 65 Mary Street, Brisbane and the NEXUS M+A Laneway Project, Brisbane, both undertaken with Urban Art Projects.

BLACKWELL'S PUBLIC ART PROJECTS

DOWNLOAD BIO / CV (PDF)

JOIN PREVIEW LIST

Media Highlights

Main Sequence 2023
spray paint on solid surface material
136cm x 240cm x 2.4, in artist's studio
$12,000 AUD

Solar Flare 2024
solid surface material and enamel paint
90cm x 90cm x 2.4cm
$6,500 AUD

Fly_ 2024
solid surface material and enamel paint
60cm x 180cm x 2.4cm
$8,000 AUD

Breath 2024
solid surface material and enamel paint
47cm x 135cm x 2.4cm
$5,000 AUD

Element 2023
solid surface material and spray paint
168cm x 63cm x 2.4cm in artist's studio
$7,900 AUD

Contact Study 2023
spray paint on solid surface material
139cm x 61cm x 2.4cm, in artist's studio
$7,000 AUD

February Study 1 2024
spray paint on solid surface material
20cm x 20cm
$800 AUD

February Study 2 2024
spray paint on solid surface material
20cm x 20cm
$800 AUD

Slip 2022
solid surface material and spray paint
45cm x 50cm x 2cm
$3,000 AUD

Climbing the Plane 2022
plywood, laminate & etching ink
193cm x 83cm x 3cm, in artist's studio
$7,500 AUD

P1: GO 2023
felt-tip marker on paper
76cm x 56cm
$1,880 AUD

P1: WITH 2023
felt-tip marker on paper
76cm x 56cm
$1,880 AUD

P1: PRECISION 2023
felt-tip marker on paper
76cm x 56cm
$1,880 AUD

Spark 2020
OSB, Etching ink & acrylic seal,
118cm x 76cm , in artist's studio
$4,900 AUD

Time On Track 2022
plywood, laminate & etching ink
132cm x 60cm x 3cm. (note the small hand-hold sculptures are separate artworks) , in artist's studio
$4,500 AUD

MRS4.4.1 2022
marble, plywood and spraypaint
40cm x 30cm In artist's studio
$3,000 AUD

MRS4.5.1 2022
travertine and plywood
44cm x 25cm In artist's studio
$2,500 AUD

Vault MRS3.6.1 2021
marble and plywood
37cm x 22cm In artist's studio
$2,500 AUD

Trantor MRS3.5.2 2021
travertine and plywood
37cm x 12cm In artist's studio
$2,000 AUD

City 2020
OSB, Etching ink & acrylic seal, in artist's studio
120cm x 170cm x 4cm
$7,500 AUD

Sprite 2020
OSB, etching ink and acrylic seal
114cm x 85cm x 4cm in artist's studio
$4,900 AUD

MRS1 (Modular Reflective Surface) 2015
relief print variable edition of 1,150,976
38cm x 28cm ed no TBC framed (4 framed pieces available)
$550 AUD

Labyrinth Offset Surface AP4 2020
mechanical ink drawing, framed AP4
75cm x 55cm framed size 84 x 65cm
$800 AUD