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CV

Born 1981
Lives in Hastings, works on the South Coast and in London

2015 – present - Associate Artist, Heart n Soul, London
2018 – 2021 - Conditions Studio Programme

Exhibitions

2026 - Many Disguises - Hastings Contemporary
2025 - A Long List of Friends - The Royal George, London (duo with Alex Williamson-Bell)
2025 - Before You Die You’ve Got To Dance - Project 78 Gallery, St Leonards-on-Sea
2023 - The Spinners - Flatlands Projects, Bexhill-on-Sea
2022 - My burger is about fair and equal - Colden’s, St Leonard’s-on-Sea
2022 - Helping Hands - Sanford Vitrine, London
2021 – RIDE - Big Rat Studios, Hastings
2021 – Zoomin’ - with Robin Smith - Skelf, Online
2021 – The Drum Also - Conditions project space, London

Selected Group Exhibitions

2026 - Lore - The Mint house, Pevensey.
2026 - The Thinking Hand - Volt Gallery / Devonshire Collective, Eastbourne.
2025 - Incidental Music - Alice Amati Gallery, London
2024 - Peer to Peer: Capturing Surroundings - Wanigrupa Gallery, Bandung, Indonesia
2024 - Fair Ground - Glyndebourne, Lewes
2023 - John Moores Painting Prize - Walker Gallery, Liverpool
2023 - Exeter Contemporary Open, Phoenix Gallery, Exeter
2023 - Baggage Claim - Staffordshire St, London
2021 - CONDITIONS End Of Year show - London
2020 - The Potion Room - Subsidiary Projects, London
2019 - CONDITIONS End Of Year show - London
2019 - Tube Lines - Tate Exchange, London
2019 - Satellite Studio - V&A Museum, London
2019 - In a Small Room, Very Loudly - Conditions, London

Awards / Residencies

2023 - Prize winner, Exeter Contemporary Open
2022 - 2023 - Flatlands Early Career Studio Programme
2022 - 2023 - Artist in Residence at Turing School in association with Towner Gallery and the Turner Prize
2022 - 2023 - Flatlands Early Career Studio Programme
2019 - 2020 Tate Modern, Artist in Residence, Schools and Teachers department
2019 - Fusion Fund award, Help Musicians UK

Publications / Presentations

2026 - ‘The Necks’ published in Best British Short Stories 2026
2025 - ‘The Necks’ short story published in Fieldnotes issue 7
2025 - Artist Talk with Jeremy Deller and Ono Dafejaiye - National Gallery
2025 - Artist Talk with Shepherd Manyika - ‘ROOM’ - Freelands Foundation
2024 - Artist Talk - Reading University (invitation from Beverley Bennett)
2023 - Do Your Own Thing - Rough Trade Books (print)
2021 - DIY as Privilege: 13 point manifesto for musicians - in Media Studies Reader (Third Edition), Routledge (print)
2021 - Guest Lecture, London College of Communication
2021 - Guest Lecture, Goldsmiths College
2021 - 21 in Underpinned by the Movements of Freighters edited by Joe Moss (print)
2020 - DIY as Privilege - A Manifesto - Rough Trade Books (print)
2020 - Critical Pedagogy in Contested Space - Tate, Speaker
2019 - How Far We Can Go - Conference, Hong Kong - Speaker
2019 - MUSOC Conference, York St John University - Speaker
2018 - DIY as Privilege: 13 point manifesto for musicians - Goldsmiths Fringe and Underground Music Group (print)
2016 - Astigmatism: Sight Paintings - Makina Books - Solo catalogue of paintings (print)

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At first glance, Richard Phoenix's paintings seem to settle into harmony. Spend a little longer with them, and other possibilities begin to emerge – human forms and faces appear, disguised by layers of paint and intuitive mark-making.

Based in Hastings, Phoenix's route into painting is shaped by experience rather than formal training. Years spent playing in DIY bands fostered an appreciation for experimentation, community and art-making outside of institutional frameworks. His work as a creative support facilitator within learning disability arts offered a profound understanding of participation, care and the value of diverse forms of expression.

As a result, Phoenix is an artist whose practice extends beyond painting into writing, music and collaborative projects. These different ways of working feed one another. His paintings are made with the same openness that characterises a musical improvisation or a good conversation: attentive, responsive and willing to be surprised by where things might lead.

His work resists fixed conclusions, instead offering spaces where tension and tenderness, structure and spontaneity, can coexist. In doing so, Phoenix reminds us that art is not only an object to be viewed but a way of listening, responding and finding connection with others.

- Leah Cross, Director of Programmes at Hastings Contemporary

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Richard Phoenix is an artist integrating painting, writing, music and facilitation. Making work that explores the rhythm, harmony and dissonance to be found in co-operation, support and art-making and the resulting balance between care and domination to be navigated.

Arriving at painting not through formal education but through many years playing in D.I.Y. bands and working within learning disability arts as creative support, these experiences profoundly influenced the way Richard approaches making and thinking about art.

Richard Phoenix

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