Scratching a living

Hull-born artist Richie Culver’s homecoming show is a paean to his days on the dole

Whoever the Dawn is who inspired Hull artist Richie Culver’s new exhibition, No One Knows Me Like Dawn from the Job Centre, she should take some pride in the fact that she failed to get him into long-term employment at a local factory, as Crown Paints’ loss is very much contemporary painting’s gain. In 2010, one of Culver’s works was featured in a Tate Modern show and his naive, honest and affectionate pieces gained something of a following: one that fizzled out during some heady years in Berlin during which, he has admitted, he ended up “living like a pirate”. Back in Britain, and following a stint in a halfway house, he has found himself with a solo show at Humber Street Gallery in Hull and a batch of new paintings that perfectly showcase his knack for observation and eye for humour. Welcome back.

— Richie Culver: No One Knows Me Like Dawn from the Job Centre, on now until 27 May, Humber Street Gallery, Hull, HU1; humberstreetgallery.co.uk