Richard McVetis

Richard McVetis

Profile

The mapping of space and marking Time and form are central themes. Using a range of media, McVetis explores how Time and place, experienced and constructed. Ideas are often developed in response to or created specifically to a moment, visualising and making this a tactile and tangible object. Drawing as an act is what occurs in everything that he does. Drawing as a dialogue; a process that goes beyond the flat surface and into the space around.

McVetis’ practice is deeply rooted in process and hand embroidery. He records Time and space through multiples of dots, lines, and crosses. These meticulously rendered stitches reflect a preoccupation with the repetitive nature, exploring the subtle differences that emerge through ritualistic and habitual making. The inscribed stitches mark the hand’s rhythms, a delicate performance of obsessive intricacy, refinement, and physical activity. They record human presence, Time and decay, each stitch acting as a marker for lived Time, an embodiment of thought and patience. There is intimacy in this labour-intensive way of making; the ritual and repetition create an in-depth focus and an internal Space-Time specific to the artist. The process of execution is just as, if not more, necessary.

Recent explorations of the cube and grid format are an attempt to organise, control and rationalise the infiniteness of Time.

Structures, motifs and patterns reference the urban landscape; they introduce the idea of Time as architecture, how our lives are built and housed in a construct of Time.

McVetis is interested in how process, specifically stitch, can reveal a world seen from within and from a scale that can tell us much more about ourselves, our trajectories in space, and the transitory relationship to the world build around us.

McVetis is a graduate of the Royal College of Art in 2008; he lives and works in London.

VARIATIONS OF A STITCHED CUBE (2017) | Photo: Yeshen Venema.
LIGHT ABSTRACT LDN (2019) | 50 x 50cm | Photo: Yeshen Venema.
UNITS OF TIME (2015) | 6 x 6 x 6cm | Photo: Yeshen Venema.
TWO CUBES (2019) | 20 x 20 x 30 cm | Photo: Yeshen Venema.
ENTROPY (2018) | 21 x 29cm | Photo: Yeshen Venema.
 A HAPPENING OF THINGS (2020) | 100 x 100cm | Photo: Yeshen Venema.
London, England
Greater London
2015

Workshops: Yes
Talks: Yes
Commissions: Yes