Bio

Statement

Working simultaneously on several drawings and using a variety of media, James Riches has developed a strategy that allows him to shift quickly between figuration and abstraction, building on ideas associated with meta-narratives.

For Riches, well before addressing or marking the surface of a drawing, the consideration and preparation of the paper, along with a measured selection of materials, is as critical as the act of making. The seemingly deliberate rejection of technology in favor of monochromatic drawing media is perhaps more embracing the immediacy this process allows, and equally the history inscribed on the drawing surface - the traces of error evident as part of the overall image.

Taking his initial inspiration from observation of archetypal symbols: the figure, the road and the bridge, Riches often re-works these into something beyond the purely representational into a more abstract, poetic realm.


	Statement HOME Working simultaneously on several drawings and using a variety of media, James Riches has developed a strategy that allows him to shift quickly between figuration and abstraction, building on ideas associated with meta-narratives. For Riches, well before addressing or marking the surface of a drawing, the consideration and preparation of the paper, along with a measured selection of materials, is as critical as the act of making. The seemingly deliberate rejection of technology in favor of monochromatic drawing media is perhaps more embracing the immediacy this process allows, and equally the history inscribed on the drawing surface - the traces of error evident as part of the overall image. Taking his initial inspiration from observation of archetypal symbols: the figure, the road and the bridge, Riches often re-works these into something beyond the purely representational into a more abstract, poetic realm.