Spatial Conceptions 2006 - 2026
The Link Gallery 2007
The Holden Gallery 2007
Manchester School of Art 2008
Monster Truck Gallery 2012
Wexford Arts Centre 2012
PS Mirabel Gallery 2013 & 2014
Dunoon Burgh Hall Gallery 2021
The works gathered under the title Spatial Conceptions originated from a question that arose unexpectedly during the installation of a series of large-scale oil paintings begun in 2006. Although conceived as individual works, it was only when they were installed within the gallery that I realised my attention had shifted away from the paintings themselves and towards the spaces they failed to occupy. I became less interested in what the paintings did than in what they didn't do.
The gaps between the works, the stretches of exposed wall and, most significantly, the corners of the gallery became increasingly important. I began to wonder what would happen if painting refused to stop at its edges. What if it continued beyond the boundaries of the canvas, wrapped around the architecture or occupied the room as a continuous presence rather than a sequence of separate objects?
The Link Gallery 2007
The Holden Gallery 2007
Manchester School of Art 2008
Monster Truck Gallery 2012
Wexford Arts Centre 2012
PS Mirabel Gallery 2013 & 2014
Dunoon Burgh Hall Gallery 2021
The works gathered under the title Spatial Conceptions originated from a question that arose unexpectedly during the installation of a series of large-scale oil paintings begun in 2006. Although conceived as individual works, it was only when they were installed within the gallery that I realised my attention had shifted away from the paintings themselves and towards the spaces they failed to occupy. I became less interested in what the paintings did than in what they didn't do.
The gaps between the works, the stretches of exposed wall and, most significantly, the corners of the gallery became increasingly important. I began to wonder what would happen if painting refused to stop at its edges. What if it continued beyond the boundaries of the canvas, wrapped around the architecture or occupied the room as a continuous presence rather than a sequence of separate objects?
Attempting to answer that question initiated an ongoing body of work that explores painting's relationship to sculpture and architecture. While the title Spatial Conceptions acknowledges the terminology of Lucio Fontana's Concetto Spaziale, it does not borrow his conceptual concerns. Instead, the work investigates the point at which the conventions that define painting begin to give way, not in order to abandon painting, but to better understand its identity.
As those boundaries became increasingly uncertain, I found myself both intrigued and cautious. While I wanted to pursue the implications of the work, I was equally determined that it should remain rooted in painting. To sustain that commitment, I have deliberately restricted the work throughout this process to the traditional materials and construction of painting: oil paint on primed canvas stretched over wooden supports. These self-imposed conditions require each new work to resolve its spatial and structural questions from within painting itself, rather than by adopting the language or materials of sculpture or architecture.
This enquiry has developed along two interconnected paths. Some works become inseparable from the architecture that contains them, extending across and responding to the physical structure of the exhibition space until the boundaries between painting and its architectural support begin to blur. Others internalise similar spatial and structural relationships within autonomous, freestanding forms. Although these approaches differ in their physical realisation, they emerge from the same underlying question: what happens when painting refuses to accept the limits traditionally imposed upon it.
Spatial Conceptions is therefore less an attempt to redefine painting than to discover what remains essential to it. Each work tests how far painting can transform, materially, physically and spatially, while remaining recognisably painting. The work offers no definitive answer. Instead, each piece becomes another attempt to ask the question more precisely, allowing painting itself to reveal how far it can transform while remaining true to its own identity.
