Michael Stubbs British, b. 1961

Stubbs is internationally recognised for the unique quality of his paintings, which are constructed by combining abstract configurations of transparent varnishes and opaque household paints with pop art graphic stencils. This layering produces multiple perspectives and optical depths. His contemporary language of abstraction is a play between material manipulation, three-dimensionality and physical space, and this language is formalised into a unique sense of composition and a rich sensual surface texture. As Barry Schawbsky wrote in the exhibition catalogue for Post Flat:New Art from London (2003), ‘Stubbs’s imagery seems constantly on the verge of converging into some form of cultural commentary, but the fundamental abstractness and even irrationality of his overlapping poured shapes seems calculated to prevent that – to insist on the painting as an agreement to disagree between wayward materials and stubborn intentionality’.