Richard Harris

Richard Harris was born in Newton Abbot, Devon, in 1954. He studied at Torquay School of Art (1972-73) and Gloucestershire College of Art (1973-76). After graduating he worked as a resident sculptor at Grizedale Forest (1977-78), then taught at various art schools in Australia (1979-81). Further projects at Grizedale and others in Australia contributed to his growing reputation as a land artist, working in the tradition of Andy Goldsworthy, Richard Long and Hamish Fulton - but differently.

Japan has regularly welcomed British artists working with landscape, and in 1990 Harris received a commission from the Fukuoka Art Museum for the 'British Art Now' show. Other projects and exhibitions include 'The Sculpture Show', Hayward/Serpentine Galleries, London (1983-84), in which he showed Passage Paving in front of the Royal Festival Hall; Bottle Bank, a major commission in Gateshead (1982-86); Kyo Undercurrent, a commission for Sustrans/Sculpture North on the Consett to Sunderland cycle path (1989); an artists' exchange residency in Wuppertal, Germany (1991-92); the Granite Symposium, Plouguerneau, France (1992); Meeting Ground, a commission for Manchester Airport Terminal 2 (1993); Dancer and Musician, a collaboration at Little Wittenham Nature Reserve, Oxfordshire (1994); Silent Steel, a symposium/commission, Pentange, Luxembourg (1995); International Artists' Workshop, Cuba (1997); an assignment for Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham (1998-2000); and a new work for Sustrans in 2002.

The sculptor's interventions in landscape are subtle and may be made from imported or local, natural materials. It is his acute sense of place and sensitivity to a given location, whether a natural landscape or built environment, that marks him as an artist who gives something that is relevant to the commissions he undertakes. Crescent curves marking a change of level in a forest floor, as in his Wuppertal installation 50 years of Falling Leaves, represent such a gentle intervention, but it is precisely and sharply structured to give an unexpected strength of impact. A small mirror-polished stainless steel crescent form that Harris made for Sculpture at Goodwood in 2001 has similar characteristics. However, the almost imperceptible slope of the curve requires close and quiet observation for the full glory of the proposed sculpture to be revealed.