Richard Lawrence

Richard Lawrence is a Sculptor and Printmaker, living and working in London.  In 1980 he exhibited one of his first sculptures a wood construction in the New Contemporaries at the ICA, London.  In 1982 he graduated from Wimbledon School of Art with a 1st class degree in sculpture.  That same  year he moved in to his first studio in Greenwich SE London.  There he carved wood and made his first prints.  Early exhibitions include: Contemporary Carving Plymouth Arts Centre and Touring Exhibition, 1984.  New Directions in Sculpture, Blonde Fine Art, London, 1984.  Figures in a Garden, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, 1984.  In that same year he was awarded a Boise travel scholarship to Italy.

 He has continued to carve wood throughout his career. It was a combination of woodcarving and drawing that helped him develop woodcut printing which in later years has become an important part of his practice.  Exploring other materials and practices has been important and over a long career he has carved stone modelled clay and worked with plaster and found object.

‘‘For some years now the main theme of my work has been the environment, animals their habitat and the resulting catastrophe of climate change and pollution.  My work is Sculpture and woodcut prints, I was making plaster sculptures with added found objects: plastic bottles etc my sculpture making switched to wood carving, but throughout this time I was making prints.

Ice Flow, 2013, this print was made when I was working in plaster and the main theme was Artic animals in this case a Polar Bear.

The Bears, 2014, a line of standing polar bears rather like an identity parade or as I thought at the time a rock band, I remember a photo of the Ramones lined up like that.

Concrete Jungle, 2025, there are two versions of this print one on dark blue paper and one on a grey paper. Night and Dawn.  I was inspired by one of David Attenborough’s documentaries, a documentary showing animals adjusting to the human environment in this case night cameras capturing Leopard’s hunting in an Indian city, Mumbai.

Edge of the City, 2026, this is the same idea as Concrete Jungle and there are also two editions one on black paper and one on a dark grey.

Sleeping Swan, 2025, this idea of animals adapting to our world, I have continued but local to me, this is a view from my studio overlooking Deptford Creek with the Docklands Light Railway passing over.

Deer, Trees and plastic bags, 2021, plastic pollution, I saw a news story of a stag in a park with a plastic bag stuck in its antlers, it had panicked and had to be shot.’’