Richard Porter
2
27 February - 11 April 2026
There are a Million of things, perhaps in the Universe, that would require a Million of different
Organs for you to understand them...should I attempt to explain to you what I perceive as the
Senses, you would represent it to yourself as something that may be Heard, Seen, Felt, Smelt or
Tasted, and yet it is no such thing.
A Voyage to the Moon, Cyrano de Bergerac, 1649
Richard Porter’s exhibition '2', his second with the gallery, is presented in two divided spaces. It
features ceramic sculptures and wall-based work, including painting and collage. His work
recalibrates our sense of human scale to accommodate the non-human, as tiny birds settle in
miniature ruins or perch beside a human nose, while rabbits emerge from clay rubble or settle
beside pink dice. Instead of losing ourselves in nature, nature loses itself in us. Many of his
paintings suggest conduits to an alternate plane: a flattened blue sky through a broken window,
or a rainbow sunset beyond a chequered floor. His collage works are derived from found musical
scores, cut up to make sparse vignettes with elemental shapes and figures.
Porter’s interest in an alternative spirituality and the unknown is informed by medieval
conceptions of the firmament, a mystical divine space that protects the world. Spirituality for
him is a belief in something that transcends all things. Formless and universal, it carries with it a
sense of wonder and of the infinite. The duality between this interest in the spiritual and the
handmade, material facture of the work is at the core of this exhibition. His work appeals to the
emotions and strives to configure a queer space that is open and free from conventional
constrictions.
The exhibition is accompanied by a text from Robert Glück.
Production by Ross Chalmers
