Richard Malone: The Irish outsider at the Royal Academy of Arts

As the 40th anniversary of the first Dublin Pride Parade takes place today, Ruth O’Connor speaks to Richard Malone - the Irish artist and designer whose work is taking centre stage at The Royal Academy of Arts' Summer Exhibition in London.

Installation view of the Summer Exhibition 2023 at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, 13 June - 20 August 2023. Photo: David Parry/Royal Academy of Arts

While Richard Malone has been the darling of the fashion set since graduating from Central Saint Martins in 2014, the designer has embraced a multi-disciplinary practice which has seen him curate and produce work for exhibitions including, ‘Making and Momentum: In Conversation with Eileen Gray’ and ‘Knot Bind Gesture Bend’, his response to the National Gallery of Ireland’s ‘Giacometti: From Life’ exhibition.

His successful stint as Artist in Residence at the National Gallery may have helped prepare him for his latest project at the Royal Academy of Arts, however it is nonetheless pretty extraordinary that a 33-year-old member of the LGBTQ+ community, an Irish artist from a rural Wexford seaside town, is taking over the Wohl Central Hall, which has previously hosted such established names as Ai WeiWei, Anthony Gormley and Joana Vasconcelos.