Richard Mensah
Biography
Who Gets to Swim, 2022
RICHARD MENSAH WAS BORN IN 1978 IN GHANA. HE LIVES AND WORKS IN LONDON, UK.
Mensah works with and paints in different media. He describes himself as a born artist as he has had no formal art/painting education or training. His love for drawing, sketching and painting was noticed at a very young age and in the very early years of his education in Ghana where he was born. He moved to the United Kingdom in the early 2000s and after a break from art for more than 15 years, Richard started painting again circa 2016 and has since been involved in exhibitions and commissions.
His style is mainly intuitive - he conceives an idea to paint but often starts the painting project before the idea is fully formed. He relies on his intuitions to bring his ideas and concept into reality. This mainly means that he does very little preparation before commencing any paintings and doesn't always know how the pieces of ideas come together to fully bring the concept into reality. His key guiding principle for every painting project is with patience every painting always ends well. He is driven by the need to tell the African and Black people story from their own perspective which is often missing in the art world. His paintings attempt to draw in audiences into the event or the story being told thereby bringing it to life for the audience. His paintings also use a lot of different items as symbolism with often a lot of research behind them. These are often left for audiences to find and interpret and or use their visual imagination to fill missing gaps in the story. He takes inspiration from his African heritage, childhood memories and everyday happenings and is very passionate about social issues. He does not limit himself in his work; he paints and creates as inspired. His love of colours, nature and fascination about everyday life scenes show through his work. He is deeply fascinated by shapes, movement and shades and light and tries to capture these in his paintings. His paintings and creations are vivid, bright bold colours, captures various emotions and combines abstract and realism.
Mensah has been involved in numerous exhibitions and was selected in 2020 as one of 25 emerging artist in the UK to watch out for by a Mayfair gallery. He has also been shortlisted and longlisted for numerous awards including the 2021 Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition, the Robert Walters Group UK New Artist of the Year Award and the Jacksons Painting Prize.
Mensah works with and paints in different media. He describes himself as a born artist as he has had no formal art/painting education or training. His love for drawing, sketching and painting was noticed at a very young age and in the very early years of his education in Ghana where he was born. He moved to the United Kingdom in the early 2000s and after a break from art for more than 15 years, Richard started painting again circa 2016 and has since been involved in exhibitions and commissions.
His style is mainly intuitive - he conceives an idea to paint but often starts the painting project before the idea is fully formed. He relies on his intuitions to bring his ideas and concept into reality. This mainly means that he does very little preparation before commencing any paintings and doesn't always know how the pieces of ideas come together to fully bring the concept into reality. His key guiding principle for every painting project is with patience every painting always ends well. He is driven by the need to tell the African and Black people story from their own perspective which is often missing in the art world. His paintings attempt to draw in audiences into the event or the story being told thereby bringing it to life for the audience. His paintings also use a lot of different items as symbolism with often a lot of research behind them. These are often left for audiences to find and interpret and or use their visual imagination to fill missing gaps in the story. He takes inspiration from his African heritage, childhood memories and everyday happenings and is very passionate about social issues. He does not limit himself in his work; he paints and creates as inspired. His love of colours, nature and fascination about everyday life scenes show through his work. He is deeply fascinated by shapes, movement and shades and light and tries to capture these in his paintings. His paintings and creations are vivid, bright bold colours, captures various emotions and combines abstract and realism.
Mensah has been involved in numerous exhibitions and was selected in 2020 as one of 25 emerging artist in the UK to watch out for by a Mayfair gallery. He has also been shortlisted and longlisted for numerous awards including the 2021 Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition, the Robert Walters Group UK New Artist of the Year Award and the Jacksons Painting Prize.
Works
Exhibitions
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The Softer Side of Us
Richard Mensah 21 Apr - 20 May 2023The Softer Part of Us is Richard Mensah's first solo show is Paris. A dozen of new pieces will unfold through the gallery space. The exhibition unveils a celebration of the black community across different eras, and geographies in the USA, UK and Ghana. The exhibition aims to showcase the complexity of the black experience, highlighting moments of leisures and other glimpses of everyday life.Read more
Curation: Essé Dabla-Attikpo -
Classique!
Group show 16 Jul - 17 Sep 2022We are thrilled to announce the opening of our new Parisian space located at 7 rue Notre-Dame-de-Nazareth, 75003 Paris. The inaugural exhibition Classique! - featuring works by - Moustapha Baidi Oumarou, Matthew Eguavoen, Salifou Lindou, Omar Mahfoudi, Richard Mensah, Ousmane Niang, Jean David Nkot, Nana Yaw Oduro, Hyacinthe Ouattara, Daniel Pengrapher and Marc Posso - it will take place from July 16th to September 17th.Read more
Press
