About
Richard Galpin is an Community Organiser, Artist and Urban Food Grower based in Walworth, South London.
He is currently Director of Partnerships at Pembroke House, London, building collaborations and wider neighbourhood alliances for systemic change.
Artworks 2001-2017
Richard Galpin’s dynamic and fantastical art works are derived from the artist's own photographs of urban landscapes. Building on an early conceptual interest in the act of erasing text and images, in 2001 Galpin developed a signature ‘excised photograph’ technique. Using only a scalpel Galpin intricately scores and peels away the emulsion from the surface of the photograph to produce a spatially disorientating composition of urban form. The artist allowed himself no collaging, or additions of any kind - each delicate work is a unique piece made entirely by the erasure of photographic information. The works play between abstraction and representation, and draw on early 20th Century movements such as constructivism and futurism for their formal visual language.
From 2010 Galpin began developing other works that enacted processes of transformation, including using a power-sander on the surface of photographs, and ‘wall-crawler’ sculptures using drywall construction materials, and a ‘Viewing Station’ installation for New York’s Highline (2011).
Projects 2017 - ongoing
In 2016 his interest in cities undergoing processes of transformation led to an increasing focus on community development and local food systems. Situated within the neighbourhood of Walworth, South London where the artist lives and works, projects include plant breeding ‘Bloody Marvel’ (2016-) urban commoning projects ‘Alberta Fruit Commons (2017-) and platforms for seed-saving networks ‘LFSBase’(2020-).
Galpin now works outside of conventional art world structures, building the networks, organisational structures, collaborations, and stories needed for systems-level transformation. Projects aim to build wide neighbourhood alliances for community-led change and include the ‘Walworth Neighbourhood Food Model’(2021-) and We Walworth (2022-3).
Photo: Richard Hooker 2017
CV
Collaborations & Partnerships
2021-2023 WALWORTH NEIGHBOURHOOD FOOD MODEL, Pembroke House & Partners, Southwark Council
2022-2023 WE WALWORTH, Pembroke House & Partners, Southwark Council
2020-2021 WALWORTH EMERGENCY FOOD HUB, Pembroke House, London
2019-2020 WALWORTH LIVING ROOM Southwark, London
2017-2020 LONDON FREEDOM SEED BANK
2017-2020 ALBERTA FRUIT COMMONS Southwark, London
2017-2019 KENNINGTON CHARTIST PROJECT Kennington Park, London
2017-2018 THE COX FAMILY COLLECTION Walworth Garden, London
Solo Exhibitions
2015 SLOW BOOM, Cristin Tierney Gallery, New York
2014 ELEPHANT (Ten Thousand Revolutions per Minute), Hales Gallery, London
2014 MUNICIPALICOLOR (Ten Thousand Revolutions per Minute), Galeria Leme, Sao Paulo
2011 LET US BUILD US A CITY AND A TOWER, Hales Gallery, London
2010 VIEWING STATION The High Line, New York
2010 DIVISION Galeria Leme, Sao Paulo
2009 ELEVATION, Hales Gallery, London
2008 TETRATOPIA Franklin Art Works, Minneapolis.
2008 XENOLITH, Brancolini Grimaldi Arte Contemporanea, Rome
2007 CLUSTER WORKS, Galeria Leme, Sao Paulo
2006 REVISIONARY, Hales Gallery, London
2005 RICHARD GALPIN, Roebling Hall Gallery, New York
2005 JERWOOD ART WALL Jerwood Foundation, London
2005 RICHARD GALPIN, Galeria Leme, Sao Paulo
2003 RICHARD GALPIN, Hales Gallery, London
Group Exhibitions
2017 TELLING TALES Collyer Bristow Gallery, London
2015 BLUEPRINT The Storefront for Art & Architecture, New York
2015 ARCHITECTURAL IMPULSE Cristin Tierney Gallery, New York
2014 BLUEPRINT Museum of Contemporary Art, Tucson, Arizona
2014 BLUEPRINT 2.0 Kunsthal KAdE, Amersfoort, Netherlands
2013 ALTER//SHIFT//CONTROL Bermondsey Project Gallery, London
2012 PHANTOM LIMB, LIMAC Museum of Contemporary Art Lima
2012 COULEUR..DANS L'ART CONTEMPORIAN Grey Area, Paris
2011 INTERSECTION: PHOTOGRAPHY/PAINTING/DOCUMENT Marlborough Chelsea, New York
2011 MOVING MAPS, Rolex Learning Centre, EPLF, Lausanne
2010 NOW WHAT? Norton Museum of Art, Palm Beach, Florida
2010 FAST FORWARD, BRITISH CONTEMPORARY ART IN BRAZIL,
Brazilian British Centre Galleries, Sao Paulo
2010 UNCERTAIN TERRAIN, Knoxville Museum of Art, Tennessee
2010 PHOTOGRAPHY GALLERY COLLECTION, Victoria and Albert Museum, London
2009 OBSESSION, Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery, University of Leeds
2009 TELL IT LIKE IT IS Galerie Jones, Cologne
2008 WHEN IT’S A PHOTOGRAPH, Bolsky Gallery, Los Angeles
2008 UNDER ERASURE, Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin
2008 WORKING SPACE II, Galerie Lucy Mackintosh, Lausanne
2008 CONSTRUCTED REALITIES – STRETCHING THE TRUTH,
John Michael Kohler Art Center, Wisconsin
2008 WORKING SPACE University of the Arts Gallery, London
2007 PRINTS AND DRAWINGS:RECENT ACQUISITIONS The British Museum, London
2007 RICHARD GALPIN, MARTINA GECCELLI, VALERIE STAHL VON STROMBERG,
2007 CLAUDIA TERSTAPPEN Jones Truebenbach Gallery, Cologne
2007 THE GREAT ESCAPE: NEW ART FROM LONDON White Flags Projects, St. Louis
2007 THE END BEGINS The Hospital, London
2006 CITYSCAPES Galeria Leme, Sao Paulo
2006 THE NEW COLLAGE Pavel Zoubok Gallery, New York
2005 THE PHOTOGRAPH IN QUESTION Von Lintel Gallery, New York
2005 PHOTO-MUTO. Hales Gallery, London
2005 CAN’T YOU HEAR ME KNOCKING Roebling Hall, New York
2005 INFRASTRUCTURE Studio Voltaire, London
2004 INAUGURAÇÃO. Galeria Leme, Sao Paulo
2004 HAPPY DARKNESS. Galeria Andre Viana, Porto
2004 MICROWAVE, FOUR. Cristinerose | Josee Bienvenu Gallery, New York
2003 URBAN SPACE AND WHAT TO MAKE OF IT. Angel Row Gallery, Nottingham
2003 ATTACK: ATTRACTION. Marcel Sitcoske Gallery, San Francisco
2003 EAST WING COLLECTION No.5 Courtauld Institute of Art, London
2002 BY HAND, THE OUTER LIMITS OF DRAWING. Hales Gallery, London
2002 ELOISE CALANDRE & RICHARD GALPIN. Inside Space Gallery, London
2002 SALE Inside Space Gallery at Selfridges, London
2000 OFF THE MAP. SevernShed, Bristol
2000 COME HELL OR HIGH WATER. Former Cornishman Offices, Penzance
2000 WW UK @ RWA Royal West of England Academy, Bristol
1997 INSTALLATION FOR THE NEPALI ART COUNCIL. Kathmandu, Nepal
1997 TWO WEEKS, THREE DAYS. The Old Leadworks, Bristol
1994 FORM AND IMAGE. Stamford Arts Centre Gallery, Cambridgeshire
Collections:
Richard Galpin's artwork is held in the collections of:
British Museum,
London Victoria & Albert Museum,
London British Government Art Collection
RISD Rhode Island Deutsche Bank Collection
The Lodeveans Collection, London
David Roberts Foundation, London
Zabludowicz Art Trust, London
The John Jones Collection,
London Derwent London PLC
Collection Banque Heritage, Geneva
Collection of Ricardo de Paulo, Geneva
Javier Lopez Madrid Collection, Madrid
Gonzalo Parodi Collection, Madrid
Juan Varez Collection, Madrid
Berenson/Barzilay Collection, USA
Time Warner, Inc. New York
Sapetnitzky Collection, Miami
Andrea e Jose Olympio Pereira Collection, São Paulo
Jorge Guinle Collection, São Paulo
Publications:
DESTRUCTION: Documents of Contemporary Art, Sven Spieker (ed), Whitechapel Gallery and MIT Press.
HIGH ART: Public Art on the High Line, Cecilia Alemani, Rizzoli International Publications, 2015, ISBN-10: 0847845192 ISBN-13: 978-0847845194 RICHARD GALPIN: SURFACE TO SURFACE: David Thorp, Richard Galpin, Hales Gallery, Galeria Leme, and 99 Publishers, the Netherlands, 2008. ISBN: 978-90-78670-03-2
THE AGE OF COLLAGE: Contemporary Collage in Modern Art: Dennis Busch, Robert Klanten, Hendrik Hellige, Gestalten 2013, ISBN: 978-3-89955-483-0 ARCHITECTURAL INTERVENTIONS, Matt Bua and Maximilian Goldfarb, Laurence King Publishing, 2012. ISBN: 978 1 78067 005 8
HIGH LINE: THE INSIDE STORY, Joshua David and Robert Hammond, Farrar, Straus and Giroux Paperbacks, 2011. ISBN: 978-0-374-53299-4
THE ART OF DESTRUCTION – MODES OF PRACTICE. (German and English) Fabrikzeitung #277, Rote Fabrik, 2012
NEW YORK: A PHOTOGRAPHER'S CITY. Marla Hamburg Kennedy, Ed. Rizzoli Publications, Inc. New York, 2010. ISBN13:978-0847835843 COLLAGE:ASSEMBLING CONTEMPORARY ART, Blanche Craig Ed, Black Dog Publishing, London, 2008. ISBN13: 978 1 906155 39 1
DIE POESIE DER ZEICHENSETZUNG, Carlos Spoerhase and Alexander Nebrig Ed. Peter Lang International Publishers, 2012. ISBN: 978-3-03-0343-1000-0
Press:
- In ‘The Architectural Impulse,’ Art Aspires, Holland Cotter, The New York Times, August 13, 2015
- Analogico: Una Sovversiva Ambiguita Flair Issue 10, 2014
- Financial Muscle: The work of Richard Galpin, Rob Wilson, Block Magazine, Architecture etc. Issue 3, 2013
- Intersections: Photography / Painting / Document, Phoebe Washburn, The New Yorker, July 25, 2011
- Fragmented Finishes, Michele Robecchi, Fantom Photographic Quarterly, Issue 05. Autumn 2010
- Viewing Station, High Line, NY, Revista Casa Vogue, July 2010
- Taking the High Line: the art park that rivals MoMA. Judith H. Dobrzynski, The Art Newspaper, March 2010
- Galleries Being Galleries, Roberta Smith. New York Times, May 6,
2010
- Public Art Ride, Time Out, New York, April 2010
- Division – commissioned project, The New York Times Magazine, April 11, 2010
- Erasing the City: Richard Galpin, Iann Magazine: Contemporary Art Photography in Asia, Vol. 4, 2009
- Richard Galpin at Hales Gallery – exhibition review, Denna Jones, Building Design, April 2009
- In the Studio – Richard Galpin, Helen Sumpter, Time Out, London, March 26-April 1, 2009
- Freestate II, Will Wiles, ICON, issue 070 March 2009
- Under Erasure, Declan Long, CIRCA: contemporary art in Ireland, ISSN 0263-9475, Autumn 2008
- Welcome to the Geometric Imaginarium, exhibition review, Christina Schmid, The Rake, Minneapolis, June 2008
- Peeled Architecture – The work of British artist Richard Galpin, Nora Schmidt, Architonic, Zurich, August 2008
- Cinq Anglais dans l'espace, exhibition review Le Temps, Switzerland, May 28th 2008
- Richard Galpin - A cura di Selva Barni. Portfolio and interview, Rodeo Magazine, Italy. No.44, February 2008
- The Devil’s in the Details, Freire Barnes, Bon International no. 11, Spring 2007
- Die Watchlist de luxe für 2007,
- Richard Galpin, Ossian Ward, Monopol nr.1, January 2007
- Richard Galpin at Hales Gallery, exhibition review, Eugenia Bell, Artforum, October 2006
- Futurism – Ten artists set for success in the next ten years, Wallpaper*, October 2006
- Richard Galpin at Roebling Hall, exhibition review, Minna Proctor, Art Review Vol X, February 2006
- 100 Future Greats – Bright Young Things, Art Review Vol IX, December 2005 - Less is More – Reena Jana on Richard Galpin, Art on Paper Vol.9 No.4, March/April 2005
- Richard Galpin at Galeria Leme, Arte Y Parte, April 2005
- Galeria Leme abre as portas para a arte, O Estado de São Paulo, November 18th 2004
- Arte Contemporânea, Casa Vogue Brasil, November 2004
- Microwave, Four - Minimalism and magic realism intersect, The New Yorker, October 13th 2003
- Urban Space and What to Make of it, exhibition review, The Guardian Guide, May 10th 2003
- Urban Space Age, exhibition review, Evening Post, May 2nd, 2003
- Hard Labour, Art Review Vol LII, Dec/Jan 2002
- Eloise Calandre and Richard Galpin, exhibition review, Mark Wilsher, What's On In London, Jan 23-30 2002
- Eloise Calandre and Richard Galpin, exhibition review, Fisun Guner, London Metro, January 10th 2002
- Richard Galpin – Erasures, exhibition review, Lucy Steeds, Artist’s Newsletter, April 1999.
Education
2000-1 MA FINE ART. Goldsmiths College London
1994-8 BA(HONS) ART IN SOCIAL CONTEXT. UWE Bristol
1993-4 FOUNDATION ART & DESIGN, Isle College, Wisbech, Cambs.
Born: Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom, 1975
Lives and Work in London.