Richard Galloway
Debut Solo Show

Wyer Gallery

Exhibition:
8th February –23rd March 2006

Royal College of Art graduate Richard Galloway presents his debut solo show at Battersea’s Wyer Gallery.
This exciting new body of work includes arresting large-scale, monochrome, linocut prints that, standing six feet high, transport the impact of his work and his medium to a wholly new level.
Galloway’s work continues to explore moments of everyday life: his haunts remain east-end barbers, hard pubs, workers’ cafes, busy bookies; his characters or cast still hard-men, tramps, prostitutes, old bar flies, make up assistants. But, in this recent work a new dark humour emerges armed with a sharply satirical edge. In Money for Fags, a major new work set over two giant 5’ x 6’ blocks, this is directed at the spurious victories of the professional and not so pro’ gamblers of a seedy London bookmakers. Amidst the various confabs inside a preoccupied, noncompliant telephonist glares boldly as she’s interrupted surfing the web. Her homepage Google is one of a number of emblematic references to modern life, including the omnipresent shiny ipod, which Galloway uses in a lampoon of designer culture and London life.

The accuracy or legitimacy of Galloway’s observations is hard gained through being right there in the throng of the action, immersing himself in the environment he studies. For a previous project, Galloway took a job as a night warden in order to recount with authority the highs and lows of life in a Hackney park. This ‘method’ technique allows his observation to become more intense and more genuine than viewing things from a safe distance on the periphery. He explains, “I need to feel the excitement and energy of the dog track or hear the laughs and feel the nervous anticipation and disappointment of the casino halls. I try to exist both inside and outside these situations, capturing the traits and moods of the people who dwell in these places in all their awkwardness, magnifying real like and creating new fictitious arenas.”
When Jane Wyer, Director of the Wyer Gallery, first encountered Galloway’s work she was struck by the wit of the images’ skillfully developed narrative as well as their creator’s dedication to such a labour intensive, almost discarded, method of production in a digital age. “The investment Richard spends in observation is mirrored in the intensity of the images’ production. Even more so in these new large scale pieces where Richard virtually has to suspend himself over these gigantic blocks for days on end,” she explains. Since finishing his MA, Richard Galloway has been involved in
numerous projects including a recent group show with The Great Unsigned (‘Craving Your Indulgence’ - curators Irene Bradbury and Soraya Rodriguez). The Great Unsigned also presented work by Galloway at Zoo Art Fair 2005.

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Wyer Gallery
191 St. John's Hill
Battersea
London, SW11 1TH
Tel/Fax :020 7223 8433
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