Paintings by artist Michael Stubbs, which challenge the information overload of the 21st century are now on display at the Cornerstone Gallery.
Michael’s paintings, which operate at the interface of abstraction and pop, are constructed by combining poured, abstract configurations of transparent varnishes and opaque household paints with ready-made graphic stencils. The repeated pouring, in conjunction with the pop signs, form a physical process of sensual flat-on-flat layering that reveals multiple perspectives and optical depths.
This layering is part of the fracturing process, the breaking up or ‘exploding’ of a recognisable image, a response, says Stubbs, to the ever-expanding proliferation of broadcast and internet-based images that fill our world. Amorphous shapes, sharp-edged logos, scything blocks of colour and silky veils of tinted varnish intrude into Stubbs’ picture planes, fragmenting the surface; it is as though the physicality of the works are coming up against the pixilation of the flattened, immaterial space of the digital image.
Yet there is an overriding seductiveness in these works; the perfection of the finish and the boldness of the palette alleviate the chaos of the visual explosion. This is picture making being interrogated in a serious, sensual and often irreverent way. Stubbs critically re-configures the medium in an age of internet information overload.
The exhibition is part of the Cornerstone Festival and will be on display until Thursday 16th March.