Richard Lewer has described his work as a form of 'contemporary social realism' experimenting with the idea of the artist as something of a social and historical commentator. Lewer the artist is a type of social anthropologist—with all the complex contradictions between disinterest and engagement, neutrality and bias, observer and participant that this infers. And on occasion he is painter as diarist. Frequently exploring difficult topics (generally through painting but also on occasion drawing and video)—including narratives of war, crime, belief systems, euthanasia, First Nations deaths in custody—and their consequential impacts, Lewer shifts back and forth between major cultural or collective experiences and intensely personal ones, from The History of Australia (Hugo Michell Gallery, Adelaide, 2018) to Richard's Disasters (Hugo Michell Gallery, 2021), Failures of history and disappointments in the self are all rendered in disarmingly direct, often apparently uncomplicated, outward-looking paintings, gritty and funny, full of respect for their subjects and viewers, yet also puzzling and unsettling.
Richard Lewer What they didn 't teach me at school: The Waikato Wars New Zealand Portrait Gallery Te Pukenga Whakaata, Wellington 22 February-12 May
Affirmation of the artist's social responsibility has regained currency in recent times. If an artist is engaged somehow in modes of commentary, then their presence will likely be palpable in or through the work. And Lewer's does bear this sense of responsibility, whether conveyed lightly or with gravitas, all the while seemingly conscious of the potential wider ramifications of any act of public representation. His is a quiet, yet overtly public form of which, through the title as well as elements within it, highlights and connects the responsibility of the individual—the artist—with a wider history and ongoing cultural reckoning.
