Paul-Auguste Richard
was born in 2000 in Paris, he studied photography-video and scenography at the École des Arts Décoratifs in Paris (2019-2024), fine art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2022) and achieved a painting MA at the Royal College of Art in London (2025). His work has been presented in several exhibitions, including Phase at The Latente Space in Chicago (2022),
Niveau 1 at the Collège Jean-Baptiste Corot in Le Raincy (2024), Un château de sable sous la paupière at AFTER Project Room in Paris (2024), Chiasmata at Greatorex in London (2025), Not With ____, But a Yawn, at Norito gallery in London (2025), Paradisio verde at MO.CA. in Brescia (2025) and ( ){ } à Rue de La Victoire 39 à Bruxelles (2026).
“We never look at just one thing; we are always looking at the relation between things and ourselves.” John Berger
Paul-Auguste Richard explores the margins of perception, where the gaze and the object of the gaze detach from one another. His work develops from a peripheral and distanced vision: that of the passing glance, which traverses without ever pausing, without coming into close contact. It is a deeply urban gaze, guided by the built landscape and the visual instruments that occupy it.
Derived from lines and plans, the forms he deploys — images of architecture — are chosen for their chromatic and geometric properties. They establish a signaletic relationship between the viewer and the space itself. Far from mere vehicles of representation, these forms are vectors of intensity that set the static nature of architecture into motion. Here, color and its physical presence are envisioned as frequencies: vibratory phenomena that precede any symbolic assignment.
Oscillating between the appearance and disappearance of distinct forms, his works maintain these two states in a relationship of co-determination; each constantly informing the other. Abstraction does not constitute an autonomous state, but rather the moment of an image in withdrawal, a non-image in the making.
Neither figurative nor abstract, the signs he employs are thus stripped of instrumentality. They compose an alternative mimetic language that shifts attention: no longer toward the transmission of a clear message, but toward a rhythmic movement of the gaze, from line to line.
It is within the exhibition space itself that this experience of the distanced gaze is reactivated contextually. Fragmented and repeated, his works are meticulously crafted like scores, unfolding according to the measure of the sites they occupy, in spatial counterpoint. While the installation relies on a shared framework, its layout leaves a significant part to in situ improvisation. His pieces thus resonate from one space to another, forming a coherent body: a sequence in variation.
Installation view archive
2026
( ){ }, duo show with Tobias Hauswirth /Rue de la Victoire 39, Bruxelles, 05.26
2025
Metropolis, collective show curated by Jacob Sirkin / Greatorex, 10 Greatorex Street, London, 10.25
Not With ____, But a Yawn, collective show with Jackson Owen and Hongil Yoon curated by Ji Yun Kim/ hosted by Norito gallery, London, 07.2025
Paradisio verde, duo show with Alessandra Risi curated by Francesca Fantoni and Pietro Cattai/ MO.CA, Sale Neoclassiche, Brescia, 07.25
Defying de oods, group show. curated by Douceline Van Caloen/ Somerset House, 06.25
Degree Show, group show/ RCA, Battersea, London, 06.25
Chiasmata, group show curated by John Reno and Douceline Van Caloen/ Greatorex, 10 Greatorex Street, London, 04.25
A Yawn, collective show with Jackson Owen and Hongil Yoon curated by Ji Yun Kim/ RCA, Battersea, London, 03.25
In solidarity with, group show curated by Zina Kamaran/ Hockney gallery, London, 02.25
2024
Entre les seuils, group show curated Anna Labouze & Keimis Henni/ Tour Orion, Montreuil, 12.24
Un château de sable sous la paupière, group show/ AFTER project room, Paris, 11.24
Niveau 1, group show curated by Christophe Herreros/ collège Jean-Baptiste Corot, Le Raincy, 11.24
Impressions parisiennes, solo show: degree show/ ENSAD, Paris, 06.2024
2023
Postal paysage, solo show/ ENSAD, Paris, 12.23
Summer Fun, group show/ Espace Nonono, Tour Orion, Montreuil, 12.23
2022
Phase, group show curated by Henry Galano/ The Latente Space, Chicago, 11.22
Les événements spectaculaires, group show/ Théâtre de l’Aquarium, Vincennes, 05.22
On the other side, group show/ Linda 2, Narva, 03.22
Cyclope en parties dévoilées/ ENSAD, Paris, 01.22
2019
La nuit, group show/ Galerie de l’ENS, Paris, 12.19
Education
Royal College of Art MA Painting 2024-2025
École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs de Paris major in scenography 2019-2024
School of the Art Intstitute of Chicago 2022
Foundation year at L’atelier de Sèvres 2018-2019
Publications
2025, Paul-Auguste Richard, “On Tom Evans : painting through the face”, “Folk artist of the month, Florence Dock London : (CRITICAL TEXT) 2 pages text
2025, Francesca Fantoni and Pietro Cattai, Moca Centro Per Le Nuove Culture, “Alessandra Risi e Paul-Auguste Richard: Paradiso Verde” : (CONVERSATION)
www.morettocavour.com
2025, Henry Galano, “Intermission: Failing to complete the Tower of Babel” : (POEM) Foreword text
2025, Matilde Sofia Monti and Yuri Wang, “Private View 001, Oil on Canvas” : (POEM) 16 artists from Royal College Of Art
2024, Christophe Lehousse, “Une résidence d’artiste haute en couleurs” : (REVIEW), www.seinesaintdenis.fr
2024, Paul-Auguste Richard, “Impressions parisiennes” : (ARTIST BOOK) 300 days of work through 300 images
2024, Paul-Auguste Richard, ENSAD, “Impressions parisiennes” : (ARTIST PRESENTATION) www.ensad.fr
2023, Paul-Auguste Richard Ceccherelli, “Courir deux lièvres à la fois” : (THESIS) 192 pages, essay on 12 artists and more
2022, Paul-Auguste Richard, “12 poems” : (BOOK), collection of poems
Talk
Royal College of Art London 05.26
Middlesex University London 03.26
Royal College of Art London 03.25