Richard Graville

Lives and works in Brighton, UK

Artist statement

‘..our minds are organs, not pipelines to the truth. Our minds evolved by natural selection to solve problems that were life and death matters to our ancestors, not to commune with correctness.’ Donald Hoffman ‘The Case Against Reality’ Vision and mind is shaped by evolution. Perception is not about seeing truth. It is about getting enough energy to live. My painting present a fundamental colour language that is interspecies. My artworks share visual codes used by animals to protect themselves. They are a measured articulation of an order that would exist without humans. Striking a balance between seduction, deception and warning. They do this to maximise fitness payoffs. They are multimodal. Our visual sense has evolved around these codes. Finding something beautiful or intriguing is a by-product. Our aesthetic appreciation has probably co-evolved with our pattern seeking impulse - here is something that deserves our attention. Triggering an emotional response, motivating ourselves to explore further. The process of making my paintings is not an act of imagination. It is more like untying knots. To expose a truer nature.

Artwork