After claiming his space in the art world over a decade ago with paintings which gave a brutally raw socio-political documentation of life in northern England, self-taught artist Richie Culver’s current work is uniquely autobiographical, navigating male vulnerability through sculpture and large text-based canvases. His work can be looked at with either irony or intense intimacy – his messy aesthetic showing a lack of hesitation with whatever is projected into the work. A truly uncut reflection of the artist, Culver’s work is a visual diary where we can all see some part of ourselves.

His recent painting ‘did u cum yet?’ (which later became part of an audio-visual collaboration with Blackhaine titled ‘did u cum yet/I’m not gonna cum’) went viral, with one Instagram user saying “Picasso would not like it either .. that I know.”, calling into question the perhaps obsolete barriers placed within elitist contemporary art structures.

First, how are you? Has the return of ‘normality’ had any impact on your creativity?

All is good. Happy things are feeling slowly better. It didn’t impact my creativity. Was a good two years, made some good work.

You’ve spoken before about how you didn’t grow up around art and you didn’t attend art school – did you believe in the early stages of making work that you’d become a full-time artist?

I didn’t grow up around art... I was exposed to stuff at after parties in the late 90s. Yeah... As soon as I started to take things seriously, I knew it would become a thing.

Did you ever find that your background made it more difficult for you to be taken seriously within the industry?

Yeah. But it’s all in my head. I try not to give it too much thought and just make good work and hope that I’ll be judged on that. I wouldn’t change anything about my background.

Your recent painting ‘did u cum yet’ got massive attention online and was so controversial you published a book of negative comments it got, and the entire thing became effectively a performance piece. It was actually quite poetic. Do you think you intentionally make work that’ll spark some reaction from those who have a set idea of what art should be?

Stuff just takes twists and turns and ends up in all kinds of different ways. Sometimes I try and be super basic... sometimes I overthink this shit and get caught in loops... then in the loops it starts to make sense and if it doesn’t make sense then even better.

Is politics and social narrative still as important within your work as it was in your earlier paintings?

Not really.

How big of a role do you think Instagram has played in your success as an artist?

Big.

What would you say to other artists that you wish someone had said to you 10 years ago?

No one ever said anything to me... I kinda wish I had a mentor... would have been nice to have that person in your corner. I just made it up as I went along. I would say to someone... Just do your thing and when people ask, “why you doing that?” just say... It’s my thing.