Richard
Richard, born in Austria, is a painter working in oil. His practice is grounded in appropriation, treating the techniques and imagery of art history as working material rather than as reference. He is the author of REVEAL: The Empowerment of Appropriation Art (2024) published by Snap Collective, which sets out this method across more than eighty of his paintings.
He is developing Ghosts of the Ice, a body of work that extends the method to climate. The paintings are made in thermochromic pigment and mounted in heated frames fitted with a viewer-controlled dial, so that the image leaves the panel as the surface warms. The first frame was built and tested in August 2026. The first paintings follow in summer 2027. Alongside the paintings, the project includes a documentary film in production, a book in development and an original album.
Richard completed The Arctic Circle expeditionary residency in July 2026, sailing the Svalbard archipelago aboard the three-masted schooner Rembrandt van Rijn. In 2027 he returns to Longyearbyen for a residency at the Spitsbergen Artists Center, then moves on to Hollufgård in Odense and Brechts Hus in Svendborg, Denmark.
Recent exhibitions include Icons, Rebels & Saints, Wallbox Gallery (2025); the Austrian National Day cultural program at the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center (2024); and Reveal, The Caldwell Gallery (2022). His work has raised funds for the Equal Justice Initiative, No Kid Hungry, Save Sight Now, NRDC and HelpUsHelp.charity. He has worked as a senior creative director in visual communication for thirty years.
From RMK to Nordstern
From 2027 the practice has a new name: Nordstern, German for the North Star. RMK, the label Richard painted under from 2016 to 2026, is retired. Its ten years stay on this site in the archive and in the book REVEAL.
Nordstern is a logbook of the North, kept in paint, photographs, film and words. It follows climate change, the Arctic, the Nordic countries and the animals that live in the cold. The work moves with him. In 2027 that means Svalbard, Odense and Svendborg. The Logbook records each stop as it happens.