Richard van den Berg

Richard has always loved making things. As a young boy he spent his time playing with Lego, building plastic kitsets and drawing crazy faces. At high school, the only thing he was inspired by and achieved at, was art and art history. He studied visual communication at Christchurch Polytechnic majoring in 3D design. Once free of the education system, he freelanced as a mural artist and designed and made clocks, which he sold at the Christchurch Arts centre market. In his late 20’s he went for an adventure overseas. On his return back to NZ he was fortunate to be employed by the Court Theatre as a set builder, scenic artist and designer. For over 20 years he has been paid to make awesome stuff, learnt some invaluable skills and met some amazing people.

Making art for him has always been the most effective way for him to find meaning and purpose in this crazy world. Being able to materialise ideas into reality is some kind of magic. His work is very graphic and slightly surreal, using direct profile to capture the beauty of the subjects to create small self-contained visual stories. The use of glass and Perspex is way of conveying depth and reflecting light as it takes a 2D image and transforms it into a 3D object. It also acts as a mirror, placing the viewer into the image and narrative.