Richard Rampersad is a nationally recognised artist who specialises in figurative painting and Ceramics. His patrons include many distinguished members of the private sector as well as corporate, academic, religious and cultural personalities. Rampersad was born in the year 1990 and grew up in the suburbs of Valsayn. He began his art education at the University of the West Indies, pursuing a Certificate in Visual Arts and then moved on to obtain his degree in Fine Arts with First Class Honours. His extraordinary achievements throughout his artistic career have made him one of the most influential figurative painters in the Contemporary Caribbean Art realm.

His artistic expression goes beyond pictorial representation and becomes the affirmation of one whose ontological foundation expresses the will to use the media as a vehicle to convey an idea or narrative. “I seek to make an advancement in the visual understanding of my figures and in how this subject matter can be rendered”. There is indeed a strong awareness for the contrast of tone and a conspicuous depiction of light, whether subdued or intense. His graphic statements are capable of speaking very clearly to us about our current concerns and is a “joy” to the observer. The arrangement of his subject is somewhat schematic, inviting the viewer to move into a space of speculation. Questioning the real and the surreal. “My non-orthodox style of rendering my subject matter supersedes naturalistic accuracy”. He is indeed a promising, pervasive and all- encompassing artist, whose works merit close watching.

ARTIST STATEMENT:

My imagery responds to the realistic and/or abstract nature of an idea or narrative. My fascination for anything I see, feel or experience propels me to do what I do and informs how I do it, as my art is a true mirror to my mind. I take pleasure in doing what I do and I believe my conceptualisations deduce more than what meets the naked eye. My art delves into the deepest recesses of the human heart and soul. As a composer in the visual realm, my motivation to breathe life to an image comes from a variety of things or an aspect of one entity, interrogated heartlessly. I am not bound by realism and being a non-linear thinker drives my art making and creative decisions. Ambivalence is a key feature in my visual discourses as what may seem as joy to one might be pain to another.

SUBJECTIVITY, AMBIVALENCE & THE CONTEMPORARY IMAGINATION

As the title suggests, this body of work is concerned with the importance of individual interpretation and exploration, based on ambivalent connotations framed through a contemporary visual discourse. Although I attempt to make logic out of the happenings, situations and experiences in my space through art, it is immensely imperative for the onlooker of my work to draw upon their own ideas and analysis as well as to create speculations from what is before them. I am establishing a metaphor via the way I construct or deconstruct my subject matter. Through the use of the female figure as an object for exploration, I present haunting concepts of alienation, isolation, ambivalence and expectation, conveying the idea of temporality that exists in most moments of our lives. My engagement with the figure, explores a variety of social, political and personal issues. Each composition serves as an assertion of a particular state of being.

With my critical acumen and artistic sensibility I have probed and employed visual symbolism and metaphor in an attempt to establish the narrative that I had conceptualized. Many of times it may be a realistic or even an abstract thought resulting in the various moods reflected in my work. As a result, my ideas are refined and the work has the ability to speak out loudly to the human experience.

This show explores the conceptual and technical discourses of the female figure in post modernity and interrogates the politics of identity.