Ric Warren

City Wall (Digital), 2009
City Limits (Florence, Edinburgh, Siena, Glasgow) 2009

Biography

Born in Barnsley (Yorkshire) Ric Warren is based in Glasgow and is a studio holder at Clydebrae Studios, Govan. He graduated form Environmental Art at Glasgow School of Art in 2008 and has exhibited both across the UK and within Europe. In 2008 he was awarded the Royal Scottish Academy's John Kinross Scholarship which enabled him to spend three months conducting research in Florence, Italy.

Artists Statement

My work is an exploration of the structures and materials that compose our manmade surroundings and I am particularly interested in architecture. I believe that urban structures have effects beyond their basic functions and I try to explore the symbolic meanings of these materials and forms. In addition to investigating conditions of contemporary urbanism, I am interested in the historical and hypothetical changes of our human habitat (physically, politically, culturally, socially and environmentally) as well as the everyday maintenance and progress of our built surroundings.

Spaces that are visually concealed or made physically inaccessible intrigue me and I try to explore these concerns within my work. Often exploring themes of exclusion, I am interested in structures that effect to conceal, edit, remove, obstruct, imprison, or deny access. I am also interested in distorting functionality by exploiting of the formal tradition of sculpture to occupy space rather than create it. Similar to my intentionally flawed ‘faux architectural’ drawings, my structures and models attempt to mimic the language of architecture, or intervene with it, to create structures that hold space but do not offer it.