Richard Gorman grew up in Ireland and has lived and worked in Milan since the 1980s.
During that time, having moved away from the figurative traces of his early work, he began to animate his paintings with a frenetic rhythm, where anxious lines glide across or carve into the surface with force.

In the 1990s, line gave way to colour: from that moment on, his work drew its strength from the compositional tension between irregular blocks of colour — increasingly simplified and prominent — which gradually became the defining feature of his artistic exploration.

His long and frequent visits to Japan have had a profound impact on his working methods and choice of materials. Particularly emblematic are his large-format works on handmade washi paper, created in the far west of Japan in 1999, 2003, 2008, 2015, and 2017.

Since the mid-1980s, Gorman has exhibited regularly around the world, including shows at the Kerlin Gallery in Dublin, as well as in London, Milan, and Tokyo.

Exhibitions:
23/23, two-person exhibition with Johannes Eidt, Yanagisawa Gallery, Saitama, Japan; Buzz and Hum, two-person exhibition with Samuel Walsh, Limerick City Gallery, Limerick (2017); Casa, Castletown House, County Kildare; Iwano, Kerlin Gallery, Dublin, Ireland; Han.so Fine Art (2016); KAN, Assab One, Milan (2015); MAC, Belfast (2014); Kerlin Gallery, Dublin (2012); Mitaka City Gallery of Art and Ashikaga City Museum of Art, Japan (2010); CCGA Koriyama Museum, Japan (2003); Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin and Crawford Art Gallery, Cork (2001); Itami City Gallery of Art and Mitaka City Art Foundation, Japan (1999).

Richard Gorman has also participated in numerous group exhibitions, including at Der Spiegel Galerie, Cologne; the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; and A Measured Quietude, a touring exhibition of Irish drawings shown at the Berkeley Art Museum, California, and The Drawing Center, New York.

His work is held in many public and private collections across Europe, the United States, and Japan, including Trinity College Dublin; The Arts Council of Ireland; Ulster Museum, Belfast; Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; Allied Irish Banks; Deutsche Bank; Nissan; University College Dublin; Dublin City Council; New York Public Library; Limerick City Gallery of Art; Koriyama City Museum of Art, Japan; and the Centre of Contemporary Graphic Art (CCGA), Fukushima, Japan.

Richard Gorman is an Elected Member of the Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin and Aosdána, Ireland. He has been awarded the Ballinglen Fellowship in Ballycastle, County Mayo, Ireland, and has received the Pollock-Krasner Award in New York (USA), the Palette d’Or at the Festival International de la Peinture in Cagnes-sur-Mer (France), and the Savile Award.

In 2014, Gorman became the first Irish artist to design a carré for the house of Hermès. His designs were featured in the men’s Fall/Winter 2015 collection and displayed in the iconic Hermès department store at Isetan, Shinjuku, Tokyo.