BA (Hons) Painting, Drawing & Printmaking

Richard Kenton Webb is an award-winning artist and educator with over 30 years of extensive experience in various teaching roles, at institutions including The Slade School of Fine Art, London and The Royal Drawing School, London. As well as teaching at some of the most respected art colleges in the UK, Richard has taken part in many residencies overseas, including The British School, Rome; Cité International des Arts, Paris; SACI International, Florence; LARQ, Tasmania, Australia; and Tao Hua Tan, China. Richard joined Arts University Plymouth in November 2020 as Subject Leader for our BA (Hons) Painting, Drawing and Printmaking programme. Richard was awarded the Sunny Art Prize in 2020. His practice focuses on painting, drawing and printmaking, and his work is held in collections in the UK, Europe, China, Mauritius, Japan, Australia, the USA and Canada. Richard’s most recent shows have been in Texas at the Martin Museum of Art in Emergence, curated by Dr Richard Davey; and at the Sokei Academy, Tokyo in Seer: European Painting & Drawing, curated by John France. Richard will be taking part in the Paris Contemporary Drawing Fair in 2021 and has been invited to the Josef and Anni Albers Residency, USA in 2022.

Monika Rycerz is an educator and printmaker. Her work is inspired by human condition, observations from the process and the unexpected. She champions a collaborative approach to work and brings this aspect to her own practice whenever possible. Monika trained in the UK and USA. She completed a BA in Surface Design at London College of Communication in 2009 and spent a semester at the University of Connecticut. In 2015 she graduated from the MA in Multidisciplinary Printmaking at the University of the West of England, where she was awarded the Agassi Book Arts Prize for her installation 'Everyone dreams'. She has exhibited her work nationally and internationally - including in the USA, China and Greece. Her current practice is based around working on socially engaging projects with local communities. She has led and run creative workshops and projects for disadvantaged adults in Plymouth and Bristol, focusing on collaboration and participation. Her interdisciplinary approach to work incorporates traditional and digital printmaking processes leading to hybrid prints and one-off room installations. She is interested in materials and challenging the process, and encourages experimentation and innovation. Monika currently teaches across all levels of our BA (Hons) Painting, Drawing & Printmaking programme.

Robert’s practice moves fluidly between disciplines and has consistently explored and exploited common perceptions of where boundaries between painting, printmaking and drawing begin and end. Studying Mural Design at Chelsea School of Art laid the foundations for a cross-disciplinary practice. A twelve-year hiatus running a successful ceramic tile design and manufacturing company was followed by the completion of an MA in Multi-disciplinary Printmaking at the University of West of England. Painting has always been central to Robert’s practice but this has been significantly influenced by the disciplines and processes of printmaking and collage. Robert’s studio outputs reflect a deep interest in the materiality and physicality of the work itself whilst simultaneously investigating themes of authenticity and modes of understood painting ‘styles’ (the abstract and the representational). Close observation of the materiality of these all these disciplines remains an integral component of his practice. Robert is also actively involved in a number of artist-led organisations and has worked as a curator on a number of arts establishment funded projects in Bristol and in the South West. Current lines of research at Arts University Plymouth are scrutinising recurring themes in his practice. These include questions of authenticity, the use of the readymade (and its influence in the context of modernist and contemporary painting) and boundaries between abstract and representational modes of painting.