RICHARD COX

Richard Cox studied Fine Art for 8 years in Newport, Birmingham and London he moved to live in Wales UK in 1975. He has a background in teaching in various Art Schools in UK and abroad, and as a Visual Arts Officer with S E Wales Arts and The Arts Council of Wales, running the Artists in Residence Programme in Wales between 1984-98.

Recent solo exhibitions have included, Bemis Centre for Contemporary Arts 2001 (also Artist in Residence in 1999 & 2001), Hijiyama University, Hiroshima in 2003, also Artist in Residence that year, the Wales European Centre, Bruxelles 2002 and Jawahar Kala Kendra in 2004. During 2005-6 he toured a major exhibition, 75 30 05 Unfinished Business to six venues in the UK .

From 2008 he has been touring his current exhibition Subterranean Architecture, Stepwells in Western India to six venues in the UK. and four in India. This is an exhibition of digital images and related drawings and prints,

His work is represented in 25 public collections which include: The National Museum of Wales, The Arts Council of Wales, The British Council, New Delhi, The State Museum at Majdanek, Poland, Delhi College of Art, Bemis Centre for Contemporary Art USA, and Jawahar Kala Kendra.

Richard is currently Director of Howard Gardens Gallery, Cardiff School of Art & Design, UWIC and a member of Proof V-6, Printmaking Research Group.

Richard Cox has had strong associations with Rajasthan since first visiting India in 1993 to set up the Wales Rajasthan Visual Artists Exchange. This project was supported by the Charles Wallace India Trust, The British Council and the Arts Council of Wales (the organisers) between 1993-98. During this five year period 35 artists from Wales and Rajasthan participated. The impact of the rich visual culture of India, and in particular some aspects of traditional architecture, Stepwells and the four existing stone observatories created by Jai Singh II between 1715-40 have influenced the developments of Richard's work. During the Spring of 2007 he engaged in a research tour of Gujarat and Rajasthan visiting Stepwell sites and Jantar Mantar documenting and recording images for his current touring exhibition 2008-2010. While in India in 2007 his exhibition, Digital Images & Drawings 2005-7 , at Jawahar Kala Kendra charts some recent work, based on his earlier experience of visiting Jantar Mantar in New Delhi and Jaipur and Abhaneri Tank.  These sites have informed and helped develop a series of works that are still evolving. He returns to work and travel in India each year. During 2010 he will be working with INTACH India National Trust for Culture and Heritage, documenting stepwells in Haryana.

In addition to the recent digital photographs from India his work also deals with architectural influences from Japan, (The Higashi Series) where he was Artist in Residence in 2003.

A very long standing interest the designs of American Cars have featured in his drawing since the late 1960s and he has worked and visited the USA many times developing an extensive visual archive on the subject.

He has been a visiting lecturer over many years including at The Royal College of Art, UCLA, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Kunstakademiet I Trondheim, Delhi College of Art, etc.

Residence: 162 Kings Road, Canton, Cardiff CF11 9DG

richardcox55@hotmail.com +44 (0)2920 236265