TIM STONER

Stoner’s latest body of work deeply engages with the layering and removal of meaning, both within the paintings themselves and through the lens of art history. His approach draws on diverse historical precedents, from the meticulous restoration techniques of Old Masters to the expressive gestures of 1980s New York graffiti and the intricate beauty of Persian calligraphy. In Negative Space, Stoner’s paintings trace the passage of time and process, creating an intersection between the ancient and the contemporary, the additive and the subtractive.

Using unconventional methods, Stoner submerges canvases in swimming pools, pours dissolving chemicals over them, and utilises tools like scalpels, sanding discs, and palette knives to distress the surfaces. These acts of erasure destabilise the identity of the paintings, allowing them to oscillate between unfinished states and final compositions. The result is a dynamic visual language that speaks to the temporality and fragility of the image.

“The negative space—the areas of erasure and removal—are as important as the marks that remain,” Stoner explains. “By removing parts of the painting, you expose a part of yourself, a hidden layer of history, and the process becomes a conversation between the present and the past. The negative is not simply a void; it becomes an active part of the image, reshaping its meaning.”

This exhibition marks a departure from Stoner’s earlier work, which merged contemporary social expression with the perceptive transience of Impressionism. In contrast, the works in Negative Space distil their content to pure abstraction, focusing on the interplay of line, plane, and colour as their own form of content. At the same time, they are deeply concerned with materiality and history—each layer, each scar on the surface, serving as a reminder of the painting’s long, unpredictable evolution.

For Stoner, Negative Space is not just about formal abstraction; it is a meditation on memory, presence, and absence. “What happens when we remove parts of ourselves?” he asks. “How do we understand who we are through the things that we leave behind, the spaces that remain?” In this exhibition, absence becomes as rich in meaning as presence, inviting an open-ended dialogue between the viewer and the artwork.