Richard Ashcroft (aka Ashwan), b 1971, is a multidisciplinary British artist and curator, originally from Liverpool and now based in Barcelona. His practice spans painting, sculpture, and sound, and he is the founder and director of Biencuadrado—a gallery and studio space supporting experimental and cross-cultural exhibitions in the city’s old town.
Ashwan holds a Master’s degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), and has worked with institutions including Tate Liverpool and the Refco Collection in Chicago. He has also taught at colleges and universities across the UK and USA.
His personal work often blurs the boundaries between gallery and street, drawing from urban aesthetics, street culture, and symbolic mark-making. Text plays a central role in his visual language, and his wall relief sculptures transform acoustic patterns into physical, visual forms.
As curator and director of Biencuadrado, Ashwan has developed a dynamic programme of exhibitions that foreground material experimentation and dialogue between emerging and established artists. His own work continues to be exhibited internationally, with principal representation through Isabelle Lesmeister Gallery in Germany.
