Artist statement
It’s a mash.
Imagery and Moving shapes on a canvas.
Abstract or figurative, painted or printed, doesn’t really seem to matter anymore.
The certain rules/ characteristics /boundaries connected to the medium of painting.
Think about the one-sided approach, the square of the canvas or the analogue attitude.
These for me are a starting point of a dance with the medium.
I challenge these constraints, play with them.
It’s the role of the jester.
We look to the rules and play with them.
Make fun of them.
Poking, prodding, swirling around.
A jump here and summersault there.
But always do this in front of the subject itself.
In this case painting.
It's a role that involves a precarious balancing of freedom and constraint.
It's also not a new role.
Painting has always been challenged by artists to define its characteristics.
Never to ridicule painting.
It’s a homage.
Like Isabelle Graw wrote in ‘The Love of Painting’ (2018: 90): “Rather, by breaking with a series of traditional ideas of painting, Stella’s work tends to strengthen painting, painting understood as a changing and specific formation.”