About Richard

Richard Coan is a multidisciplinary artist based in the North West of England.

Before focusing on fine art, Richard spent many years working as a graphic designer and creative director. His background in communication and visual storytelling continues to influence his artistic practice.

He develops ongoing creative conversations with places through making, noticing and capturing, including through Artist in Residence projects.

Artistic Statement

I process by making, exploring how we relate to ourselves and each other – as individuals, communities and cultures.

Quietly emerging at the heart of this exploration is a question: How might we be more fully alive in our own lives, and in relationship with one another and the world?

Making is how I discover my relationship with the world.

I don’t begin with a message. I begin with attention. Something catches my eye, my curiosity or my imagination. Through making, I explore my relationship with life. As I make, I notice things I couldn’t previously see.

Rather than arriving with predetermined outcomes, I respond creatively to what emerges through attention, making and conversation. Sometimes those discoveries reveal questions of meaning, worth and connection. They may be encountered in the everyday, the physical or the spiritual.

They find expression through photographs, films, songs, poems, publications, installations or participatory experiences. The medium isn’t the starting point; it’s simply the most appropriate way to capture what has been found.

For me, a residency is a way of being present. It creates the time and space to immerse myself in a place, listen deeply and respond to what is already there.

I don’t think of my work as a series of completed projects. Returning to a place isn’t repeating the work. It’s continuing the conversation.

If those discoveries resonate with others, the work becomes a shared act of noticing.