In this solo exhibition I continue to reflect upon the broad impact of digital culture upon imagery – in both cases, meaning is inextricably bound up with the relations between the physical and the immaterial.
My 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 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, to broadcast and internet-based images of violence and confusion that seem to 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; 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. By interrogating the utilitarian but sensual medium of house paints and varnishes, I attempt to critically re-configure the medium of painting in an age of internet information overload.
