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Still (Studio 24)

Richard Baker, Mark Dunn, Tom Palin, Luke Steele, Adam Stone

To paint is to immobilise time. The stillness of the object of painting serves to disguise the temporal nature of the processes by which a painting is constructed. Yet a painting’s surface is built incrementally, and in its stillness offers clues to what it has been—perhaps the only clues to what, in essence, it is.

The five painters in this exhibition, disparate though their works might appear to be in terms of scale, subject matter, approach, handling, design and intention, all share a common concern with the fundamental constituents of the painted object: surface, material, vehicle, support, and time.

Still is therefore a dialogue about foundations and concealment, where painting is presented as perhaps the most deceptive of time-based media.

 Tom Palin, 2014

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