I wasn’t a musician or a writer and I needed a medium through which to jettison all this pent up emotion and sadness. - Richie Culver
Richie Culver has much to say and even more to show for it. His paintings of sparse imagery and text are culled snippets of life’s opposing forces at play: high-brow versus low; good versus evil; clean versus drug-addled; funny versus not-so-funny. In his artistic work, Culver draws mainly on personal references, such as his working-class roots in the North of England, his experience of the darker side of urban life, popular culture, contemporary politics and social commentary. His paintings are awash with imagery and words picked up in his surroundings: the neighbour racing pigeons, tabloid culture, local heroes, greyhound racing, the bookies… In his words, lots of high hopes and broken promises.