Photograph by Wilhelm Scholz

STEPHEN PUSEY

Some Notes About The Work

Stephen Pusey's work is the culmination of a preoccupation that developed over decades and concurrently with his earlier work as a public mural painter and net artist. While his abstract painting can be read as a more personal form of engagement than his socially orientated figurative and digital work - it is similarly informed by a philosophical perspective of the human condition.

The artist considers the underlying idea in his work as, "signature". This is evident both literally and conceptually. The paintings and drawings are constructed of a matrix of calligraphic gestures which appear to flow in and out of space. The artist works with speed and autonomically, while simultaneously applying critcal judgment. There is a contradiction of flatness and perspective in the work produced by the vibration of tonally equivalent colors and the psychological perspective of the line.

Pusey regards the paintings as predestined, as the signature of the under-painting determines the point of arrival. The energized randomness of this ceaseless drawing finds a logical manifestation - a neural structure that implies infinity and a sense of symmetry - where none actually exists.

To quote the artist: "I believe I am channeling in the work an energy that is shared by all and which flows through everything. I am interested in the duality and contradiction of this energy - the tension between chaos and structure, of progression and regression - a biological shape-shifting and persistence of similarity that resonates throughout existence."

Indeed, in keeping with his method - Pusey's work is auto suggestive - forms appear and dissolve within the seemingly abstract matrix. The optical device of the work encourages the viewer to explore their own journey - one that will never arrive at any fixed point.

November, 2010