Painting of the Future

Curated by Ben Curnow
Andrew Barber
Stephen Bram
Simon Ingram
Stephen Little

Exhibition 14 - 24 June 2006

We were glad to welcome back Ben Curnow with another monumentally titled project: Painting of the Future. This show sought to stretch the audience beyond lazy application of overused terms 'abstract' and 'minimal' rather Curnow attempts to define a diverse post-twentieth century praxis in painting as "post-metaphysical" and translatory.

PAINTING OF THE FUTURE (Part I). Two small paintings graced Canary's walls. The interior space of both paintings reflect the gallery space - Andrew Barber's flat tennis court relating visually to the front view of the gallery and Stephen Bram's dimensional work picking out the 70's geometric tiling of the arcade. PAINTING OF THE FUTURE (Part II) added two more paintings to the exhibition: Stephen Little's critique, a clear frame of stretched vinyl and a typographical study in process colour by Simon Ingram.

The basic idea with "Painting of the Future" is to emphasise the projective capacity of painting, its potential to open up horizons -- not pointing back to some meaning that exists before (or 'behind') the work, but forward, to the future. It suggests models for possibility in general; models that imply a potential for action and analysis. B.C

Ben Curnow curated Photography of Nothing in June 2004 with Lisa Benson, Marco Fusinato and Felicia Kan. He's been very much part of the Canary family since being the subject of our first ever exhibition 'Untitled (Portrait of Ben Curnow)' by Julian Dashper in March 2004.