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The Art World in Focus
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Michael Staniak

MICHAEL STANIAK

No Shadows in Cyberspace STATION 18 April–30 May 2026 Sydney
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Press Release

STATION is delighted to present No Shadows in Cyberspace, Michael Staniak’s fifth solo exhibition with the gallery. The exhibition features new paintings alongside a film that explores the intersections of perception, reality and technological mediation.

The title, drawn from William Gibson’s Neuromancer (1984) and Haruki Murakami’s Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (1985), points to a space where the boundaries between physical and virtual experience begin to dissolve.

Staniak’s paintings bring together traditional studio processes with visual languages that echo digital aesthetics, complicating distinctions between material and mediated forms.

The exhibition also introduces a new film work that considers how technological shifts shape contemporary image-making and the traditions that inform it. Produced without the use of AI, the work reflects a broader cultural shift toward renewed attention to materiality, labour and the unpredictability of the human hand.

Together, these works consider perception, illusion and the unstable nature of reality in an increasingly mediated world.

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Installation Views

Michael Staniak, No Shadows in Cyberspace, 2026, installation view, STATION, Gadigal/Sydney. Photo: Document Photography
Michael Staniak, No Shadows in Cyberspace, 2026, installation view, STATION, Gadigal/Sydney. Photo: Document Photography
Michael Staniak, No Shadows in Cyberspace, 2026, installation view, STATION, Gadigal/Sydney. Photo: Document Photography
Michael Staniak, No Shadows in Cyberspace, 2026, installation view, STATION, Gadigal/Sydney. Photo: Document Photography
Michael Staniak, No Shadows in Cyberspace, 2026, installation view, STATION, Gadigal/Sydney. Photo: Document Photography
Michael Staniak, No Shadows in Cyberspace, 2026, installation view, STATION, Gadigal/Sydney. Photo: Document Photography
About the Artist

Michael Staniak’s practice concerns the changing dynamics of creative processes in light of the proliferation of social and digital media. His paintings and sculptures explore the relationship between traditional methods and new technologies. Process is as much a focus of his work as out- come. Through unique applications of colour and manipulation of mediums, Staniak deliberately disrupts the visual cues that help distinguish digital and traditional image production. His works often utilise textures with a trompe-l’œil effect that manipulate the viewer’s depth perception. The resulting hypnotic surfaces act as a visual portal to a post-digital world, one in which we interact both physically and virtually, and reflect on the implications of such an existence.

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Address
91 Campbell Street
Surry Hills
Sydney
Australia
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Tuesday – Saturday
10am – 5pm
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