Richard Patterson's complex, multilayered paintings sit firmly within the grand traditions of European and American art, and employ a battery of techniques, genres and media. Often attracted by latent psychological or sexual charge, Patterson draws allusions from his personal archive and popular culture, which are then infused with material references to the academic history of painting. Claiming a process of 'masking', Patterson combines carefully rendered portraits with fenestrations of abstract painting as a means of generating a binary – and mutual – existence between the two contrasting languages of figuration and abstraction. Engaging with notions of fetish, these 'masks' literally anatomise the figure beneath, whilst conceptually acknowledging the inherent voyeurism of painting.
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Richard Patterson’s complex, multilayered paintings, sculptures and prints sit firmly within the grand tradition of European and American art. Despite their rich pop cultural allusions culled from film, magazines, music and advertising, Patterson is engaged on a philosophical level with the interconnections of meaning, image and making. His works can be viewed as masks or screens, concealing a melancholy meditation on the contemporary condition. Patterson knowingly employs a battery of techniques, genres and media: self-portraits, ready-mades, photography, painterly streaks and smudges and virtuoso photorealist painting, which all converge in works that reveal the inherently political nature of craft and making.
Born in the UK in 1963, Patterson graduated from Goldsmiths College in 1986. He was included in Damien Hirst’s renowned Freeze, Surrey Docks, London (1988); as well as Sensation: Young British Artists from the Saatchi Collection, Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK; Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin, Germany; Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, USA (1997-00). Other notable exhibitions include The Rowan Collection: Contemporary British & Irish Art, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland (2002); Painting Pictures, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany (2003); Nexus Texas, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Texas, USA (2007) and Attention to Detail, curated by Chuck Close, the FLAG Art Foundation, New York, USA (2007). Patterson has had solo exhibitions at Anthony d’Offay Gallery, London (1997); James Cohan Gallery, New York, USA (1999 and 2002); Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas, USA (2000), Timothy Taylor, London (2005, 2008, 2013 and 2021); the Goss-Michael Foundation, Dallas, USA (2009) and Timothy Taylor, New York (2018).
| 1963 | Born in Leatherhead, Surrey, England, UK |
| 1982–83 | Watford College of Art and Design Foundation Course, UK |
| 1983–86 | Goldsmiths College, London, BA (Hons.) Fine Art, UK |
| 2021 | Richard Patterson: The Kennington Drawings, 1988, Cris Worley Fine Arts, Dallas, TX, USA |
| Richard Patterson, Timothy Taylor, London, UK | |
| 2018 | Richard Patterson, Timothy Taylor, New York, NY, USA |
| 2017 | Richard Patterson, Timothy Taylor, New York, NY, USA |
| 2014 | Richard Patterson, Timothy Taylor, London, UK |
| Richard Patterson, The FLAG Art Foundation, New York, NY, USA | |
| 2013 | Richard Patterson, Timothy Taylor, London, UK (cat.) |
| 2009 | Richard Patterson, Goss-Michael Foundation, Dallas, TX, USA |
| 2008 | Richard Patterson: New Work, Timothy Taylor, London, UK |
| 2005 | Richard Patterson: Paintings from Dallas, Timothy Taylor, London, UK (cat.) |
| 2002 | Richard Patterson, James Cohan Gallery, New York, NY, USA |
| 2000 | Concentration 35: Richard Patterson, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX, USA |
| 1999 | Richard Patterson, James Cohan Gallery, New York, NY, USA (cat.) |
| 1997 | Richard Patterson, Anthony d’Offay Gallery, London, UK (cat.) |
| 1995 | Richard Patterson: Motocrosser, Project Space, Anthony d’Offay Gallery, London, UK |
| 2018 | Richard Patterson | Ged Quinn, Galleria Mucciaccia, Rome, Italy |
| 2013 | Here We Go: a changing group show, Karsten Schubert, London, UK |
| 2011 | Queer State(s), curated by Noah Simblist, Visual Arts Center, The University of Texas at Austin, TX, USA |
| 2010 | ART, curated by Michael Craig-Martin, Galerie Haas & Fuchs, Berlin, Germany |
| Size Does Matter, curated by Shaquille O’Neal, The FLAG Art Foundation, New York, NY, USA | |
| 2009 | DLA Piper Series: This is Sculpture, Tate Collection Display co-curated by Michael Craig-Martin, Tim Etchells, Mike Figgis and Wayne Hemingway & Son, Tate Liverpool, Liverpool, UK |
| 2008 | WALL ROCKETS: Contemporary Artists and Ed Ruscha, curated by Lisa Dennison, The FLAG Art Foundation, New York, NY, USA |
| Freeze 20, The Hospital Club, London, UK | |
| 2007 | Attention to Detail, curated by Chuck Close, The FLAG Art Foundation, New York, NY, USA (cat.) |
| Nexus Texas, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Houston, TX, USA | |
| 2006 | Ambush, Road Agent, Dallas, TX, USA |
| 2004 | She's Come Undone, Artemis Greenberg Van Doren Gallery, New York, NY USA |
| Pixels: Painting and Photography in the Digital Age, Stellan Holm Gallery, New York, NY, USA | |
| My Reality—Contemporary Art and the Culture of Japanese Animation, The Huntsville Museum of Art, Huntsville, AL, USA | |
| 2003 | Painting Pictures, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg, Germany |
| Inaugural Exhibition, Timothy Taylor Gallery, London, UK | |
| My Reality—Contemporary Art and the Culture of Japanese Animation, Akron Art Museum, Akron, OH, USA; Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, FL, USA; | |
| 2002 | The Rowan Collection: Contemporary British & Irish Art, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland, UK (cat.) |
| Arte Contemporáneo Internacional, Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City, Mexico | |
| My Reality – Contemporary Art and the Culture of Japanese Animation, The Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH, USA; Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, FL, USA | |
| 2001 | Camera Works: The Photographic Impulse in Contemporary Art, Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York, NY, USA |
| My Reality—Contemporary Art and the Culture of Japanese Animation, Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA, USA; Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY, USA; Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL, USA | |
| Casino 2001, curated by Jeanne Greenberg-Rohaytn, Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (S.M.A.K.), Ghent, Belgium | |
| 1999–00 | Sensation: Young British Artists from The Saatchi Collection, Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, NY, USA |
| 1999 | Negotiating Small Truths, Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX, USA |
| Mode of Art, Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Germany | |
| 1998–99 | Sensation: Young British Artists from The Saatchi Collection, Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin, Germany |
| 1998 | Head First: Portraits from the Arts Council Collection, The City Gallery, Leicester, UK; City Art Gallery, Southampton, UK; Abbot Hall Gallery, Kendal, UK; Hatton Gallery, Newcastle, UK; Victoria Art Gallery, Bath, UK; Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield, UK; Ferens Art Gallery, Hull, UK |
| Abstract Painting, Once Removed, Contemporary Art Gallery, Houston, TX, USA | |
| 1997–98 | About Vision: New British Paintings in the 1990s, Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle, UK (cat.) |
| 1997 | False Impressions, The British School at Rome, Rome, Italy |
| Package Holiday: New British Art in the Ophiuchius Collection, The Hydra Workshop, Hydra, Greece | |
| Pictura Britannica: Art from Britain, MoCA, Sydney, Australia; Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia; City Gallery Wellington, New Zealand (cat.) | |
| About Vision: New British Paintings in the 1990s, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, UK; Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, UK (cat.) | |
| Sensation: Young British Artists from The Saatchi Collection, Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK | |
| 1996 | ACE!: Arts Council Collection of New Purchases, Hatton Gallery, Newcastle, UK; Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston, UK; Oldham Art Gallery, Oldham, UK; Hayward Gallery, London, UK; Museum and Art Gallery, Walsall, UK; Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield, UK; Angel Row Gallery, Nottingham, UK; Arnolfini, Bristol, UK |
| Answered Prayers, Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin, Germany | |
| Portrait of the Artist, Anthony d’Offay Gallery, London, UK | |
| Sammlung Volkmann Zeigt: Faustrecht Der Freiheit, Kunstsammlung Gera and Neues Museum, Weserburg, Berlin, Germany | |
| 1988 | Freeze, Surrey Docks, London, UK (cat.) |
| Arts Council, London, UK |
| British Council, London, UK |
| Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO |
| The Rowan Collection, Northern Ireland |
| Saatchi Collection, London, UK |
| SFMoMA, San Francisco, CA |
| Southampton Museum and Art Gallery, Southampton, UK |
| Tate Gallery, London, UK |
| 2013 | Richard Patterson, texts by Toby Kamps, Jeremy Strick and Martin Herbert, London: Ridinghouse |
| 2010 | ART, curated by Michael Craig-Martin, Berlin: Galerie Haas & Fuchs |
| 2008 | Attention to Detail, curated by Chuck Close, New York: The FLAG Art Foundation |
| Pipes, Alan, Foundations of Art and Design, London: Laurence King Publishing | |
| 2007 | Kamps, Toby, Morsiani, Paola, Oliver, Valerie Cassel, Nexus Texas, Houston: Contemporary Arts Museum Houston |
| 2006 | Richer, Francesca, Rosenzweig, Matthew, eds. No 1: First Works by 362 Artists |
| 2005 | Richard Patterson: Paintings from Dallas, text by Matthew Collings, London: Timothy Taylor Gallery |
| 2003 | de Cruz, Gemma, British Artists’ Studios, Paris: Assouline Press |
| van Tuyl et al, Gijs, Painting Pictures, Wolfsburg: Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg | |
| 2002 | The Rowan Collection: Contemporary British and Irish Art. Dublin: Irish Museum of Modern Art |
| 2001 | Fleming et al, Jeff, My Reality – Contemporary Art and the Culture of Japanese Animation, Iowa: Des Moines Art Center |
| 1999 | Richard Patterson: New Paintings. New York: James Cohan Gallery |
| Stecker, Raimund, Mode of Art, Düsseldorf: Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen | |
| 1998 | Piggot, Hadrian, Metamorphologies. Stockholm: Furniture Publishing |
| Shone, Richard, Head First: Portraits from the Arts Council Collection. London: Arts Council | |
| Pagel, David, Raphael Rubenstein and Peter Schjeldahl, Abstract Painting, Once Removed. Houston: Contemporary Art Gallery, Houston | |
| 1997 | Paintings by Richard Patterson. London: Anthony d’Offay Gallery |
| Jacques, Alison, False Impressions, Rome: The British School at Rome | |
| Rosenthal, Norman, Sensation: Young British Artists from The Saatchi Collection. London: Royal Academy of Arts | |
| About Vision: New British Paintings in the 1990s. Oxford: Museum of Modern Art | |
| Murphy, Bernice, and Andrew Wilson, Pictura Britannica: Art from Britain, Sydney: MoCA | |
| 1988 | Jeffrey, Ian, 'Platonic Tropics', Introductory text to Freeze exhibition catalogue |
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