These paintings respond to the language, images and iconography of social media, message threads and newsfeeds. The works are informed by traditions in abstract painting and pop art; combining expressive gestures and emoji-like iconography with references to advertising and communication to explore the liminal space between crossing virtual and physical environments. Each work is composed as a moment in a 'thread', a place in an expanse, rather than a contained moment. They emerge from the format of message threads, texting and newsfeeds that define how we consumer information on digital platforms.

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The work does not sit neatly between abstraction, figuration or text-based painting, aiming to respond to the multitude of ways we absorb information and communicate in the online world. The use of mark-making and gesture is the index of the artists being as they navigate cyberscapes and real spaces, evoking a sense of fast-paced scrolling, scribbling, and senselessness. The bright colour palettes are inspired by the hues of Instagram and virtual environments. The raw canvas contrasts the sleek hard glass of screes from which they have emerged and brings one closer to the work, out the virtual and cognitive, and into the tactile and sensory. On the surface the works appear light and cheerful, like the sleek palette of an Instagram feed, but beneath many of the works is a sense of emptiness reflecting the alienated individual behind the screen.

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Photography: Ian Hobbs, Campbell Henderson and Document Photography