Kerlin Gallery is delighted to present Japan, an exhibition of handmade works on paper by Richard Gorman.

Richard Gorman, b. 1946, Dublin, lives and works in Dublin. A gifted colourist, he is best known for his paintings and works on paper exploring the dynamic interplay between geometric forms. Infused with a sense of vitality, Gorman’s offbeat shapes appear mobile – as if floating past, wiggling around or colliding with one another, like dancers in motion. Often graced with a subtly playful or humorous undertone, their generosity of spirit is enhanced by a striking colour palette, varying from meditative blues to piquant acid tones. Gorman’s approach to painting has been guided by the places he has visited and been influenced by: Milan, where he has lived on/off for many years, and Japan, home to the family-run paper factory he has visited to produce his handmade kozo washi paper for over 30 years. His works on paper offer a delicacy and fragility in counterpoint to his more robust oils on canvas, but both strands of Gorman’s practice draw their power from the compositional tension between boldly simplified blocks of colour.

Richard Gorman’s work has been exhibited at The Drawing Centre, New York; Berkeley Art Museum, California; Barbican Centre, London; Koriyama City Museum of Art, Mitaka City Gallery of Art and Ashikaga City Museum of Art in Japan; The MAC, Belfast; the Irish Museum of Modern Art and Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin. Recent solo exhibitions include Living Through Paint(ing), travelling from The Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin (2023) to The Contemporary Art Museum of Villa Croce & Oriental Art Museum E. Chiossone, Genoa, Italy (2024). Recent group exhibitions include Sacred Trust: Donations and their Legacy, The Hugh Lane Gallery (2024); In & of itself: Abstraction in the age of images, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, Ireland (2022); New Perspectives, The National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin (2021). Gorman’s work is represented in the collections of the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin; Crawford Art Gallery, Cork; Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin; Josef and Anni Albers Foundation; Koriyama City Museum of Art, Japan; Centre of Contemporary Graphic Art, Fukishima, Japan and New York Public Library.