Richard Wathen

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'Conrad', oil on linen, 2009

Time Out says

One way of looking at Richard Wathen's airless paintings of androgynous, slightly sinister figures, sometimes naked, often cuddling pet rabbits, is to see them as a series of symbols to be deciphered. Here we are presented with a youngster building a house of cards – a representation of the artist, perhaps – while the bunnies held by 'Adair', a young Mozart/Little Lord Fauntleroy type, and the supernaturally gaunt 'Florence' are emblematic, we're told, of the subjects' sense of vulnerability. Such readings only gets us so far, however, for despite abundant visual clues and rich art historical references Wathen's paintings aspire to a simmering strangeness and rebuff those who try too hard to unravel them. (MC)