Profile of
Richard Jack

Richard Jack was born in Harare, the son of a nurse and an architect. He furthered his art studies at Durban Art School from 1969 until 1973. He began his career as an artist in South Africa from 1975 exhibiting in Johannesburg. Returning to Harare in 1980 he held his first one man exhibition at Gallery Delta in 1981. Drawing, assembling, applying and carving images from the African environment, he sees his work as “reflections of the changing, mirrored contrasts around”.

The construction of Richard Jack’s sculpture incorporate the media of stone, metal and wood.

This is dedicated by the necessity to express all aspects and variations of the human individual: man, family, sensitivity, futiveness are reflected in this dimension of form and involve a new integrity which has not been affected by destruction or violence.

“Painting and sculpture, and the combination of the two, has always fascinated me. By combining various materials I see myself and things more clearly in this multi-faceted environment where everything becomes permeated by human thoughts, actions and imagination that vary”.

“Art is my expression, it’s sometimes social comment, sometimes dreams, some understand some don’t want to”

Africa –

Continent of colour and contrast –

An obsession with self-expression.

Balance forms: chaotic fields.

Sharing peace and the fruit.

Meshing minds

The artist pains and sculpts.

Thoughts

Dreams

Mixed emotions under a moonlit sky.

Patterns –

Rurual and urban images –

With wood

Stone, steel

Reeds

Pains.

And everyday

Changes, figures,

Still life’s

Contemporary cries of primitive spirits.

Richard Jack September 1994

“There is the thought in Europe and a few other places that any valid art coming from Africa should necessarily be produced by blacks, the indigenous people of a predominantly black continent.

White artists involved with the African idiom find this hard to accept, and of course it is. It may well be in years to come, that the possible broader scope of white thinking allied to the African feel and theme could syntheses to form a contemporary African art favouring neither racial backgrounds nor colour.

Whatever the outcome, many white artists are inextricably involved with Africa and its people. One of them is Richard Jack”.

John Deward, The Star, June 1979 (Johannesburg, S.A.)

“Africa has become a strange jumble of ideas, using the old to throw light on the new, and the new throwing the old into shadow. But while everyting has not always been black and white, some of the cross-patches of light and shade have provided startling patterns for the observer. Richard Jack is an observer.”

Andrew Whaley, The Herald August 1981 (Harare, Zimbabwe)

	Biography
1949	Born in Harare, Zimbabwe. Educated in Harare and Durban.
1969-70	Natal Technical Art College Durban, studied graphic design and photography
1971-75	Worked in advertising agencies in Harare, London and Johannesburg
1975	Began painting and sculpting and also did freelance illustration and graphic design
	Exhibitions
1977	Chris Crake Gallery, Johannesburg Group Show
1978	Walsh Marais Gallery, Durban One Man Show Trevor Coleman Gallery Johannesburg One Man Show
1979	Akis Gallery Johannesburg One Man Show
1979-80	Opened Marico Moon Gallery, Johannesburg
1980	Durban Arts 80 – outdoor sculpture
1981	Market Gallery Johannesburg – One Man Show Artists from Zimbabwe – Trevor Coleman Gallery Delta Gallery Harare – Two Man Exhibition Delta Gallery Harare – Group Show Weldart National Gallery of Zimbabwe (NGZ) 24 Annual NGZ
1982	Delta Gallery Harare – Group Show Nedlaw Sculpture Exhibition NGZ Helen de Leeuw Gallery Johannesburg – One Man Show Mall Gallery London – Group Exhibition
1983	Nedlaw Sculpture Exhibition – NGZ 2nd Prize Weldart NGZ John Boyne Gallery Harare – One Man Show Zimbabwean-Mozambique Solidarity Exhibition, Maputo
1984	International Art Fair Barbican Centre London – Group Show The Rt Hon. Lord and Lady Walston – Picaddily Residence John Boyne Gallery Harare – Group Show
1985	Nedlaw Sculpture Exhibition NGZ Delta Gallery Harare – Group Show
1986	Delta Gallery Harare – Group Show Annual Baringa/Nedlaw NGZ ZAVACAD Anti-apartheid Exhibition Murewa Cultural Centre John Boyne Gallery Harare – Group Show
1987	Annual Baringa/Nedlaw NGZ Delta Gallery Harare – Group Show
1988	Pachipamwe workshop Exhibition NGZ Annual Baringa/Nedlaw NGZ
1989 1990	Annual Baringa/Nedlaw NGZ Le Forum, Harare – Group Show 2nd Pachipamwe workshop – Exhibition NGZ Delta Gallery – Contemporary wood sculpture Delta Gallery – Group Show
1991	Johnson & Fletcher – Wood sculpture NGZ 4th Pachipamwe workshop – Exhibition NGZ Le Forum, Harare – The New Generation Annual Zimbabwe Hertiage – NGZ Thapong Workshop – Exhibition National Gallery of Botswana 4th Biennial Havana – Cuba
1992	10 Sculptures Contemporians du Zimbabwe – Paris National Gallery of Zimbabwe – solo show. Sandro’s Gallery, Harare – two man show.
1993	Alva Aalto Museum, Jyvaskyla, Finland – ‘6th Graphica Creaativa’. Gallery Delta – exhibition with Matti Wasskilampi from Finland.
1994	Gallery Delta Solo Show.
1995	SANAA National Museum of Contemporary Art, Norway. Contemporary art from East and Southern Africa. First SA Biennale, Johannesburg, South Africa. 6th All Africa Games, Harare – Mural in granite for torch base.
1996	Alva Aalto Museum – ‘7th Graphica Creativa’. Jyvaskyla, Finland. Remisen Brande, Denmark – International Artists Workshop.
1997	Gallery Delta – solo show. Royal Museum of Central Africa Tervuren, Belgium – ‘Legacies of Stone, Zimbabwe past and present’.
1998	Gallery Delta – graphics. Contemporary sculpture of Zimbabwe Espace Artsenal, Paris. Commissioned sculpture – Aage Damgaard, Herning, Denmark.
1999	Quenington Sculpture Trust – ‘Fresh Air 1999’. Cuxhaven Art Centre – Artist in Residence. Commission for Cuxhaven Schlossgarten. Wawana Gallery, Maastricht. Zimbabwe German Society workshop and exhibition (NGZ). Annual Heritage Exhibition (NGZ), 1982-1999.
2000	Gallery Delta – Millennium exhibition. Gallery Delta – Post Election Selection.
2001	Gallery Delta – ‘Thoughts’, solo show. Quenington Sculpture Trust – ‘Fresh Air 2001’.
2002	Wawana Gallery, Maastricht – ‘Thoughts in Form’, solo show. Gallery Delta, Harare – Group sculpture exhibition.
2003	October Gallery, London – ‘Africa Informs’, four contemporary African Artists. Quenington Sculpture Trust – ‘Fresh Air 2003’. Gallery 27, Cork Street, London – ‘Artists for Zimbabwe’.
2004	St’Art Fair, Strasbourg. Gallerie d’Ames d’Afrique, Strasbourg.
2005	Alan Kluckow Gallery – ‘Juxtaposition’. Quenington Sculpture Trust – ‘Fresh Air 2005’. Musee des Arts Deniers, Paris – Group exhibition. Surrey Open Studios, Farnham.
2007	Hockey Gallery – UCCA – ‘Technique’.
2008	Hockey Gallery – UCCA – ‘Technique’ The Lightbox, Woking.
2009	Hockey Gallery – UCA – ‘Technique’ Quenington Sculpture Trust – ‘Fresh Air 2009’

CATALOGUES THAT COME WITH PURCHASE:

Graphics, Paintings, Sculptures, Gallery Delta, Zimbabwe 1989

Sculptures & Murals by Richard Jack, The National Gallery of Zimbabwe (NGZ) 1992

Two Directions with Three Mediums, Gallery Delta, Zimbabwe 1994