Richard Woods
Some Shelves I Made

Following on from Harvest, his first show at Semiose in 2023, Richard Woods is back with his latest exhibition Some Shelves I Made, a set of shelves decorated with his trademark faux-wood motif with its exaggerated grain and vivid colors. The shelves have a rustic aspect, sometimes adorned with picturesque details such as an openwork heart, or decorative scalloping, and are hung on the walls like a series of small paintings.

The shelves are just like floors or tables. They are the start of a conversation between myself and the person that lives with the work. A shelf also has a discussion with the room it hangs in as well as a discussion with the objects that are placed on it. It’s this combination of practical and intellectual use that I enjoy. It’s fun to play with that, to allow the shelf a little more volume in the conversation than it may normally have. I love making the floors because I’m in a way only half finishing the work, the work is completed by the person who lives with it or the architecture it sits within. I feel the same way about the shelves, I’ve done half of the work and now it’s up to someone to finish the work off by choosing a vase or a stack of books or a picture of their favourite pet.

I don’t want to dictate what the objects would look like or the uses that they might have. It’s the collaborative activity that fascinates me. I like to have that conversation with the person that will be using them. One of these shelves is me saying ‘Hello!’ and where the conversation goes after that is very much up to the person that is collaborating with me.

My art hero is Franz West. I’ve always been more interested in artists that have a multi-disciplinary practice, and Franz West epitomises this method. His works play with ideas, aesthetics and usability. He was continually moving on from stylistic locations that lesser artists would settle in for a lifetime. I hope that making these shelves has made my work more expansive and approachable. I hope that this expansiveness is something that Franz West would find fun?
— Richard Woods

The British artist Richard Woods first came into the public eye through his architectural installations in a cartoonish mock Tudor style, saturated with patterns and motifs. His sculptures, architectural make-overs and fully-realized décors, re-interpret wall paper designs and wooden flooring in a pop romantic style. With his palette of vibrant colors, he radically transforms the spaces he invests into new realities, poking fun at the cult of home improvement and DIY aesthetics.

Richard Woods was born in Chester, England, in 1966 and graduated from the Slade School of Fine Art, London in 1990, where he trained as a sculptor. Woods completed a major architectural commission for the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang (South Korea), designed an interior for the Comme des Garçons' flagship store in Osaka (Japan), orchestrated the mock Tudor overhaul of a private residence in New York and transformed the interior of Cary Grant's former Hollywood residence for its new owner, Jeffrey Deitch.

Recent exhibitions and projects include Southwark Cathedral (2022), Sculpture Milwaukee (2019), Frieze Sculpture, London (2018, 2013), Chelsea Space, London (2017), Folkestone Triennial (2017), Eastside Projects, Birmingham (2016), Festival of Love, Southbank Centre, London (2015), Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff (2015), Albion Barn, Oxford (2015), Bloomberg Space, London (2012) and Victoria and Albert Museum, London (2009). His works are held in major collections including the Saatchi Collection, London; Arts Council England, London; Victoria and Albert Museum; London; British Museum, London and the Museum of Modern Art, New York.