Tony Rickaby 1944 – 2018
Born and brought up in London, and having lived there most of my life, my art reflects my fascination with its buildings and streets and the constant evidence of people, movement, change and chaos.
I have used and combined many different formats: paintings, constructions, installations, text and digital works. Sometimes my artworks may function as single pieces and sometimes as a related group of images or objects. Usually they have been gallery-based, but I have also shown in other formats: shop windows, architectural spaces and in printed and digital magazines. I enjoy making things and in using colour; also in researching the historical and social background to my work. I use writing as a way of clarifying my ideas or communicating them to others, have often incorporated words into my artworks and as well as writing for various publications I have published a number of my own books.
After studying at Portsmouth College of Art and St. Martin’s School of Art in London, I worked with the Light/Sound Workshop group on projects including those at the Brighton Festival and Oxford Museum of Modern Art. Also with the Archigram group at the Milan Triennale, on its Monaco project and producing drawings for its magazine.
In the 1970s a series of solo exhibitions dealing with the relationship between art, popular culture and politics included those at Adhocs Gallery, London; Art Net, London and Franklin Furnace, New York. Group exhibitions included Art For Society, Whitechapel Gallery, London; Political Practice, Galeria Civica, Modena and Art From the British Left, Artists Space, New York.
From 1978 to 1992 I produced paintings using buildings as my subject-matter – metaphors for economic, ideological and political power in the modern city – resulting in solo exhibitions at Art Net, London; C Space, New York; Orchard Gallery, Derry; AIR Gallery, London and Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool. Group exhibitions included Whitechapel Open; War of Images, Transmission Gallery, Glasgow and State of the Nation, Herbert Art Gallery, Coventry
In the following two decades my work – mostly 3-D pieces and installations, often using found materials – concentrated on the theme of poverty and homelessness, reflecting on ‘cardboard cities’, housing estates and street markets. Solo exhibitions were at Central Space, London; Mission Gallery, Swansea; Standpoint Gallery, London and Colette, Paris. Group exhibitions included East International, Mostyn Open, Whitechapel Open, Arttextiles 3, Canvas – Babylon Gallery, Ely and Threads of Meaning, Chapel Gallery, Ormskirk.
My more recent work has been based on walks around London. This began as a project about the street where I lived as child and then with the unloved and unregarded parts of the city, the conversations of passers-by and wall signs and adverts. Currently I am looking into government and financial organisations that have forms of control over us.
Solo exhibitions
2016 Compotes, London
2013 Crescent Lodge, London
2004 Crescent Lodge, London
2002 St. Mary Woolnoth Church, London
2001 Colette, Paris
2000 Standpoint Gallery, London
1998 Trinity Arts Centre, Tunbridge Wells
1996 Mission Gallery, Swansea
1995 Bonnington Gallery, Coventry University; Gallery II, University of Bradford
1994 Central Space, London
1988 Darlington Arts Centre; Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool
1987 Pentonville Gallery, London
1985 Howard Gardens Gallery, Cardiff
1984 Pentonville Gallery, London
1983 South Hill Park Arts Centre, Bracknell; Quay Arts Centre, Isle of Wight
1982 Art & Research Exchange, Belfast; Orchard Gallery, Derry – AIR Gallery, London
1980 Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff; Pentonville Gallery, London
1979 C Space, New York; Printed Matter, New York
1978 Art Net, London; Franklin Furnace, New York
1977 Battersea Arts Centre, London
1975 Art Net, London
1974 University of Surrey
1973 Adhocs Gallery, London; Oval House Gallery, London
Group exhibitions
2017 Reclaim Spaces, Off-Quay, London; Merge, Islington Arts Factory, London
2016 Re-Cognition, ART-MAP, Ponte de Lima, Portugal; Forest Gate Arts Trail, London; MEWS #1: Urban Environment, JakBox, London; CHROMA: Black & White, Crypt Gallery, London; Threads, Salisbury Arts Centre; UrbanPhotoFest, London
2015 Pop Living, Schwarz Gallery, London; Journeys, Jewish Museum, London; The Story So Far, W3 Gallery, London; Poetry in Visual, Galeria de Capitania, Aveiro, Portugal; Deptford X Festival, London
2014 In the City, University of Central Lancashire
2011 Type/Script, Chapel Gallery, Ormskirk; Local, Karin Janssen Project Space, London; A History of Moving Image in New Contemporaries, ICA, London
2010 Art for Everyone, Riverside Gallery, Richmond
2009 Age & Memory, Riverside Gallery, Richmond; Unfolding, Chapel Gallery, Ormskirk; In Their Own Words, Bank Street Arts, Sheffield; Art for Everyone, Riverside Gallery, Richmond
2008 Just Desserts, Novas Contemporary Urban Centre, London; Clinch/Cross/Cut, New Jerseyy, Basel
2007 Threads of Meaning, Chapel Gallery, Ormskirk; Series & Systems, Project Space at London Art Fair; Mapping, Bury Art Gallery; In Their Own Words, End Gallery, Sheffield Hallam University; Public Pages, Plymouth University; Artsway+10, Artsway, New Forest; In Their Own Words Too, Merchants Warehouse, Manchester; Building Sites, FHF Gallery, London
2006 Art For The General Strike!, Changing Room Gallery, London; Normalife Unlimited, Neal’s Yard, London; The Art of Hip Hop, Brighton University Gallery
2005 Canvas Babylon Gallery, Ely
2004 Arttextiles 3 Bury St.Edmunds Art Gallery travelling exhibition
2001 Il Condominio, ‘Hicetnunc 2001’, San Vito al Tagliamento, Italy
2000 Live in Your Head, Whitechapel Gallery, London
1999 Housing & Homelessness, Candid Gallery, London; Spatial Concepts, James Hockey Gallery, Farnham
1998 Cheltenham Open Drawing Exhibition; Medway Open, Gillingham
1997 Push the Boat Out, Mission Gallery, Swansea; City Markets, Alan Baxter Gallery, London –
Cheltenham Open Drawing Exhibition, CGCHE, Cheltenham; Checkout, Waterman’s Arts Centre, London
1996 Contingent Lots, Riverside Studios, London; Whitechapel Open; Mostyn Open
1995 East International, Norwich; Mostyn Open, Llandudno
1994 Old Object: New Subject, Nottingham University; Traces, Islington Art Factory, London
1992 Artists For Nuclear Disarmament, Swiss Cottage Library, London; Art of the Urban Now, Small Mansion Arts Centre, London; Migraine Images, St. Martin’s Gallery, London; Western Exposure, Waterman’s Arts Centre, London
1991 An Art Exhibition, Feeringbury Manor, Essex
1990 Artists For Nuclear Disarmament, Swiss Cottage Library, London; Art & Communication, Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield
1989 Young Unknowns Gallery, London
1988 Narrative Painting, Castlefield Gallery, Manchester; Homage to Federico Garcia Lorca, Laguada Gallery, Granada
1987 State of the Nation, Herbert Art Gallery, Coventry; Attitudes to Ireland, Orchard Gallery, Derry
1986 Artists Against Apartheid, Royal Festival Hall, London; War of Images, Transmission Gallery, Glasgow; Whitechapel Open
1985 Written Language in the Image, Makkom Gallery, Amsterdam
1984 Hundreds of Drawings, Artists Space, New York; Spirit of London, Royal Festival Hall, London; Offset, New England Foundation for the Arts touring exhibition
1983 Spirit of London, Royal Festival Hall, London; New Beginnings, Pentonville Gallery, London
1982 Whitechapel Open; South Bank Show, South London Art Gallery; Artists Against Apartheid, Seven Dials Gallery, London; Arteder 82, Bilbao; Britain Salutes New York, Center for Book Arts, New York
1981 Cleveland Drawing Biennale
1980 Vigilance, Franklin Furnace, New York; The Page as Alternative Space, Franklin Furnace, New York
1979 Urban Signals, Centro Internazionale di Brera, Milan; Art From The British Left, Artists Space, New York; The Open & Closed Book, V & A Museum, London
1978 Art For Society, Whitechapel Gallery, London & Ulster Museum, Belfast; Artwords & Bookworks, Los Angeles ICA; Franklin Furnace Travelling Exhibition, Japan & Australasia; Political Practice, Galleria Civica, Modena
1977 The Mechanics of Manipulation, La Mamelle, San Francisco; Radical Attitudes to the Gallery, Art Net, London; Definitions of Art, Other Books & So, Amsterdam
1976 Artists Books, Arts Council travelling exhibition; Networks, Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh; International Print Exhibition, San Francisco Arts Center
1975 Art Information Festival, Middelberg, Holland; Artists Bookworks, British Council travelling exhibition
1974 Art Meeting Place, London
1972 Adhocs Gallery, London
1968 Milan Triennale
1967 Light/Sound Workshop, Oxford Museum of Modern Art; Young Contemporaries, Royal Institute Galleries, London
1965 Miss Misty & the Tri-Cool Data, Aston University, Birmingham
Curation
Radical Attitudes to the Gallery, Art Net, London, 1977
Projects
2017 Skelf SITE virtual project space
2014 Stack, Gallery 202, University of Northampton; Fitzrovia Atlas, University of Westminster
2011 Post Hoc, Bank Street Arts, Sheffield
2008 Subliminal Seduction, Oxford Street, London; 20×20 Magazine Issue 1(London)
2005 Making Things Better, East International, Norwich
1999 Reform Project , London
1971 You Must Be Joking! Belgrade Theatre, Coventry
1970 Oh Flux! Gulbenkian Theatre, Canterbury
1968 21st Century, CBS TV; Release, BBC TV
1967 Interaction, St. Martin’s School of Art
Web Art
2018 h&, Apr
2017 Small Po(r)tions #7; Empty Mirror; Streetcake #53; Otoliths #46
2016 Tip of the Knife 24; Shuf #6; Ink, Sweat & Tears; h&, Jan
2015 M58, May
2014 Vortice, July
2013 The Post-literate (R)evolution, Feb; Quarter After; Altered Scale
2012 In Stereo Press; Short, Fast & Deadly, Nov/Dec; Toad 2:3; Tip of the Knife 11; Counterexample Poetics
2011 Cricket Online Review vii/ii; Otoliths #22
2010 Otoliths #18; artcornwall web projects; Streetcake Magazine #10
2009 Cricket Online Review v/ii; Otoliths #15; Suss; London Poetry Systems
2006 Stuffed Net Art Open; Locus Novus
2005 (B)EAST 05 #1
2004 Drunkenboat #6
Books
2016 Unnoticed; Urban Signals
2014 Detours (Amazon)
1984 Strains
1981 Looking at a Group of Buildings in Ireland (Orchard Gallery, Derry)
1977 Genre; Life-still (Edition After Hand, Denmark)
1975 An Unknown Art History (Art Net, London); Oeuvre; Twenty Art Outings
1974 Art Delinquency Notes; Casts
1973 Site (such a)
1972 A Novel Sculpture of 1958
Writings
2018 Poems in foam:e 15 (March); Poem in experiential-experimental-literature (Apr)
2017 ‘Lessons’ in Skelf SITE (April-May); Poems in North of Oxford (July); Poems in Futures Trading 5.2 (Aug); Poem in experiential-experimental-literature (Aug)
2016 ‘The Art of 1958’ in Paragraph Planet (Jan)
2015 Poems in Zoomoozophone 6 (July)
2014 Poem in The Second Hump Vol IV(March); Poem in Camel Saloon (Feb); Poems in Message in a Bottle; ‘Bomb Walk’ in Litro Magazine; ‘Epic’ in Stepaway Magazine 12;
2013 Poems in Sugar Mule 42; ‘Getting On’ in The Whistling Fire (Feb)
2012 ‘Station’ in Fox Chase Review (Autumn); Poems in Pocket Litter (May); Poems in Ditch; ‘Wee Willie Harris’ in Anderbo
2011 ‘Stockwell Road Shots’ in Word Riot; ‘Cabaret’ in Young, Fresh & Relevant 1; ‘Vincenzo Puruggia’ in Post Hoc (Sheffield Poetry Festival)
2010 ‘Some Sculpture Scenes of 1958’ in Aspidistra 1; ‘Fountain’ & ‘Freeform’ in Athregeum
2009 ‘Two Scenarios’ in Streetcake Magazine Issue 3
1999 ‘Reflecting the Market’ & ‘Point of Sale’ in ReForm
1994 ‘Web’ in Brought to Book
1993 ‘Intercourse’ in Arrival Press Spring Collection
1992 ‘Estate’ in Guardians of the State
1983 ‘My Local Police Stations’ in Te Elder Ure
1982 ‘The Powers That Be’ in Block 6; ‘Looking at a Printed Page’ in Art Journal of America, Summer 1982
1981 ‘Radical Attitudes to the Gallery’ in Studio International
1979 ‘The Artists International’ in History Workshop 6 & Block 1
1979 ‘Looking at Buildings’ in Control 11 (London)
1977 ‘Fragments From a Conversation’ in Kontexts 9/10
1976 ‘Art Delinquency Notes’ in Tracks Vol 2 No 3
1975 ‘Six Unknown Yet Influential Artists of the 1960s’ in Schmuck 5
1974 Poems in Second Aeon 19/21; Poems in Vile (1974)
1970 ‘Outgrowth’ in Archigram 9
1969 ‘Softly-softly’ in Ark 44
1968 ‘Request’ in Archigram 8