Richard Bagguley
Richard Bagguley (born November 12, 1955 in Shoreham by Sea) is an international muralist and artist.
He spends much of the year traveling, dividing his time between on site commissions and his studios in London and Los Angeles.
His method of using real people and events in his paintings falls under the label of social realism.
His parents lived in Brighton moving to Hampshire when Richard was 1 year old. Bagguley was educated at Reed's School in Cobham Surrey, before studying photography at The Arts University College at Bournemouth followed by a brief spell as photographer and illustrator for Hull University magazine.
At 21, Bagguley left for Latin America. For 8 years he traveled the world, dealing in textiles whilst photographing and drawing the people of South America, Asia and Australia.
Finally settling in London, in 1985 he turned to mural and trompe l’oeil work to complete over 450 private and commercial commissions in 7 countries.
In 2000 he started to work on canvas, painting a series on Tribal art for the River Nile gallery in Spain and portrait commissions in the UK. In 2002 he started on a new series of paintings topical social commentary ‘social realism’ which formed the body of work first shown in the Chelsea arts club in March 2009. At the same time the documentary "Heaven, Hell and Bagguley" inspired by the contrast in the artists work was made by Max Thurlow, this and his latest body of work under the same title was shown at the Maverik gallery at the end of October 2009. In the same month Richard staged a modern crucifixion with performance artist Stephen Howarth as Jesus outside Oxford Circus underground station at rush hour.
The event was photographed by Andre Camara and reported on in several newspapers including The Independent and The Baptist Times. From those images Bagguley painted a 5 ft × 8 ft canvas with 40 people occupying the space. This brought him to the attention of the church followed by an article in the Baptist Times, the Reverend Dr. Brian Leathard having seen his work in the Chelsea Arts Club invited him to put on an exhibition at St Luke's Church, Chelsea (October 29 – November 11, 2010). St Luke's, an Anglican church in Chelsea is to be home of images of, Jade Goody as a saint, football fans, Buddhist and Carmelite monks sharing space with racist thugs.
Richard Bagguley is a member of:
- An Association of Professional Muralists - UK
- National Society of Mural Painters - USA