Artists

Richard Sides

Press release

“The English word for purple comes from a Latin word which comes from a Greek word. The greek word comes from a fish that excretes a dye that is purplish in tone. A rarity in antiquity, it was sought after by Greek royalty who yearned for a purple tunic, perhaps a trouser. When the time came to name the colour the Greeks, faithful to the fish, gave the colour the scientific name of the purple fish: porpura.  Once Latin surfaces, the story of fish is gone but the adjective survives as a reference to pure colour.” Micaela Dixon

Richard Sides (b. 1985, Rotherham, UK)  is an artist and curator based in Berlin. His works explore contemporary ideas of meaning as an existential problem. These often manifest as environments that treat the exhibition as sites with their own obstructions and particularities to respond to. Recent solo and duo exhibitions include Elections, Shore Gallery, Vienna (2024); Slow Dance (4) with Nicole-Antonia Spagnola, Stadtgalerie Bern (2023); Basic Vision, KOW, Berlin (2022); The Matrix, Schiefe Zähne, Berlin (2021); Dwelling, Kunstverein Braunschweig (2019) and PURE HATE, Liszt (2017). Richard has participated in numerous group exhibitions including Kunsthalle Zurich, Bonner Kunstverein, Kunsthaus Glarus, Kunstverein Hannover, Atonal Berlin, Fluentum Berlin and Swiss Institute, New York. He is co-director of The Wig in Berlin and runs Bus Editions since 2010.