I Am The Best Richie Culver

Richie Culver presents his solo exhibition “I am the best” at Ruttkowski;68 Düsseldorf.

To the artist and non-artist alike, the measure of our work is defined by that which it lacks. This convergence between the non-artist and artist, a shared loss that to one is existentially loathsome and the other is the essence of its method, makes Richie Culver’s latest series of paintings some of the most intimate and provocative work he has produced.

Richie’s work has always been conscious of self – a mutualism that has been solemnly diaristic at times, drastically amplifying, or even both. His canvases performed an internal monologue that was wise to it’s self, proudly explicating insecurities and foibles with gratuitous conviction. It was the ego under the influence of the death drive, vacating its conscientiousness with every utterance. What is striking about this new passage, therefore, is the emergence of a self-consciousness that approaches sincerity.

Here, he embodies the imposter, the loss-maker. The artist-loser. This may sound like a criticism. It is not. I would posit that the greatest artist-loser to date was Martin Kippenberger; its champion movement was Dadaism. Across Richie’s canvases there is abjection at play. We see narratives played out that vibrate with an anxious energy, statements and words that are compulsive, subconscious and honest. We recognize a voice that is unshakably real, but one that can be funny, transformative, and poignant.

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