SCOTT LICZNERSKI

Emerging collectively on the wall, Licznerski handles, rotates, and angles stretched linenwith simultaneous heavy and soft exchange. As layers in some paintings dry, others begin to surface, encouraging the progressive detachment and looseness in which he likesto work. Encounters of chaos are gradually held as complexity is resolved. Interpretationremains undefined in broad association.

Licznerski seeks division in many aspects, such as that between nature and city. It is thisrecurring mutation which comes through in his work and mirrors a preoccupation withduality. Often beginning with small, fast sketches on paper, these determine nothing ofthe end, but rather a series of entrances. The responses are then unknown as there wouldbe too much control otherwise. Distinct and unrecognisable dialogues soon emerge. Thetitle of the exhibition hints at the subtle distinction between perception, allusion, andreality. The sea is not black.

Scott Licznerski (Edinburgh, 1987) sets delicate tensions between opposing states, holding and tightening the looseness of painting until a new language emerges. He is influ-enced by the situational navigation of urban fabrics, censorship, the theatre of existence,and the beautiful accidents our cities subconsciously spew.

His process-driven works are unapologetically physical: made with loaded brush, body,and hand. Preoccupations with duality, trace, and the distortion of what is real and imagined are laid bare. Even if seemingly untethered, there is an air of unequivocal order frommanipulation and overpainting. His layering in building the pictorial, blurs the sequencing in which they unravel.

Licznerski’s approach challenges preconceived agreements of the immediately accessible and throw-away contemporary times. He honours beauty in areas outside of hiscontrol, and redirects focus and permanence to hold intrigue and alter thought. Just aseach eye will never see the same, moments can never repeat.