Last week, Visionaire 60 RELIGION contributor and self-proclaimed art shaman Matthew Stone presented his third solo exhibition at the New York gallery The Hole. This new exhibition marks the departure from Stone’s aesthetic as we know it: instead of focusing on the human body through a lens, the British born artist presented new works made with both a camera and a brush.
“I have wanted to make these works for a long time and have been playing with different ways of presenting these painterly gestures. I understand that they look different to a lot of people, but there is a personal continuity. The same types of creative decision-making spread throughout everything I produce, whether its paintings, photography or music. Although I was working with paint I felt a connection to the body while I was doing it. I don’t necessarily want people to read these as figurative, but then I didn’t necessarily want people to see the body photographs I made in that way either,” he explains, noting that he studied painting at art school and has always inspired by the medium for his photography work.
To create the seven prints, Stone hand-painted on glass and photographed the results. He then transferred the high-resolution prints to wood, sheet acrylic and mirror after having intensified the colors and removed imperfections such as dust and hairs. It was a way to further the visual and practical potential of painting without leaving behind the medium he’s known for.
Matthew Stone’s Unconditional Love exhibition runs until April 6th at The Hole gallery in NYC.
Photos courtesy of Randall Bellows.