Richard Burton lives and works in South London. Last year he graduated with an MA from the Royal College of Art and, most recently, he completed an Abbey Fellowship at The British School at Rome. Burton conceives of his practice as an act of world-building, creating synthetic environments that reflect contemporary states of solitude and aspirational living.

The paintings of Richard Burton and Anne Carney Raines constituted the second iteration of the six-part Incubator 21 programme. The two artists began sharing a studio in South London during the COVID-19 pandemic and graduated from the Royal College of Art with Masters in Painting this year. As well as cohabiting a studio space, the they have a shared interest in distilling and exposing the strangeness of quotidian life. These complimentary bodies of work engage in painting as an act of world-building. Burton creates synthetic environments that reflect contemporary states of solitude and aspirational living, whilst the influence of Raines’ background in scenic painting is evident in the fluctuating states of unease and calm that manifest in the paintings’ uninhabited spaces. Together, these works converge to invite a meditation on the dormant anxieties of the everyday, whilst creating spaces that may also offer respite from these ever-present undercurrents.

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co-curated by Angelica Jopling, Clara Galperin and Taylor Zakarin