richard giblett artwork

richard giblett

artist in residence 2018

Richard Giblett's artwork imagery is concerned with systems, networks and the visual appearance of built environments and the connections that occur within these phenomena. He creates artworks using a range of methods that involve detailed model making to spray painted works on glass, meticulously hand painted large scale gouache paintings and collage on paper.

Currently living and working in Melbourne, former West Australian artist Giblett completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) at Curtin University in Perth and has lived in Melbourne for the last 16 years. Having also completed previous residencies in New York, London and Korea Richard Giblett returns to Perth for his first solo exhibition at Turner Galleries in July 2018.

Giblett has regularly exhibited in Melbourne with Murray White Room over the last decade, and most recently in major international exhibitions including the NGV Triennial (2017), Art Basel Hong Kong (2015) and Lisbon Architecture Triennial, Portugal (2016).

Richard Giblett's work explores the urban environment in architectural renderings across two and three-dimensional forms. The works focus on the abstracted and minimalist takes on architectural patterning of building facades and city skylines.

Lending a dystopian view of metropolitan living, Giblett's work reflects his experiences working and living in expansive metropolises (such as New York and Seoul) that have provided boundless inspiration for his work. Investigating the binaries of nature and culture, his built cities are often imbued with an artificially coloured glow, as though reconstructed from a science fiction novel.

Giblett is well known for his highly precise sculptural, drawn and otherwise rendered depictions of geometric networks, structures and architectures. His striking and highly crafted artworks have strong ties to design elements, particularly of the industrial and architectural kind, yet as a visual artist he has a propensity toward making detailed and time consuming works by hand, without the assistance of design based computer programs.

Recognized for his exacting and immaculate renderings of architectural elements and structures interconnected into sprawling geometric networks, Giblett's futuristic, industrial sculptures, paintings, drawings and collages embody a critique of the capitalist and consumerist forces that shape them.

Giblett has held solo exhibitions at significant Australian institutions including the Perth Institute of Contemporary Art, Perth in 1996 and 2006, and Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne, in 2004. His work has been exhibited at Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, 2011; the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth (2005 and 2009); and the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, 2006, among others. Giblett's work is represented in significant Australian and international collections including the National Gallery of Victoria; Artbank, Australia; the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth; the Besen Collection, Melbourne; and Chanel Ltd, Paris.