Concluding our Artist Spotlight series for JGM Gallery's True Fiction exhibition is Richard Lewer, a Melbourne-based artist whose thought-provoking works are exhibited regularly across Australia and New Zealand. Renowned for his mastery of video, animation, painting, and delicately haunting drawings, Lewer reimagines life’s darker moments - crime scenes, illness, horror films, and extreme events - through an artistic and deeply moving lens.
Read on to discover more about Richard, his artistic style, and what inspires his work.
How would you describe your artistic style?
I like to experiment with notions of the artist’s role as a commentator or interpreter, and often investigate difficult or taboo subject matter, for example some previous works have explored war, crime, religion, mental illness, fly-in-fly-out culture, dementia, Frontier Wars, euthanasia, Aboriginal deaths in custody, sporting failure and so on. Given this propensity for making work that interrogates the sometimes complex or troubling parts of society I tend to change up the materiality of the work or research a topic by immersing myself physically. Some of those mediums or immersive experiences have included billiard-table skins and acoustic-board tiles, to steel, copper, mirror and clay – moving across drawing, painting, animation, performance and installation, learning to box, trekking the Kokoda Trail and preparing for the 100km Oxfam Trail walk.
Who or what inspires your art?
As my work often reflects the human experience - both my own and others - focusing on the "messier" aspects of life—health issues, accidents, fears, and failures I find inspiration in personal narratives, social realism, and human vulnerability. I’m compelled to tell stories that resonate universally, aiming for audiences to see parts of their lives mirrored in the work.
If you could have an art studio anywhere in the world where would it be?
It doesn’t matter where I am, it’s people and their stories, which are universally understood. I can go anywhere and will always be able to find an historical society, join a sporting club, go surfing, get involved in local activities or subcultures. I find most people naturally want to connect with someone, and once trust is established, the sharing comes naturally so I never run out of stories and anecdotes to share in my work.
Between video, animation, painting, drawing and performance, which would you say is the most challenging media and why?
Animation for me, just because it involves liaising and collaborating with many different people to pull together the technical aspects including lighting, film / camerawork, animation, editing, sound etc. to create the final work. It’s not that I don’t enjoy it, I like the disruption to my regular practice (usually solo in the studio with the cat) but it takes a lot of time to create an animation so I’m always happy to get back to painting and drawing.
Do you have a favourite artwork or item you've created? And if so, why?
There’s too many works to choose from! But my mum’s funeral painting has a special place in my heart and mind. This painting, which documents the end of my mother’s life, is significant to me in many different ways.
