My paintings engage with the idea of an inner perception or unfolding visual language. Constantly perplexed and fascinated by the notion of something beneath a surface or the image alluding to another space or dimension. An inherent gesture of searching, through acts of removal or addition, deny and locate the images within the materiality of the surface.

Currently my work is centred on notions of the self in relationship with the wider discourses of painting. I am exploring the expanded field of abstract painting in its current role in the visual arts. I am particularly interested in the illusion of three-dimensional spaces within painting and the gestural use of painted expression as a mode of visual communication today and onwards into the 21st century.

Abstract painting has been heralded as dead over and over again and been considered essentially outmoded for many decades. I feel compelled by the painted visual strata and believe it still has a specific niche in contemporary art parallel amongst more contemporary modes of exploration. It is the human element of expression through non- figurative translations of being that greatly interests me, especially the physically painted mark and its permanence in time and space reflective of our wider being and existing.

Painted images can sometimes convey emotions such as time, place, landscape and memories of visual composition, places and spaces. It can record experiences whether those be political, individual, physical or sensual. As well as dichotomies of inner and outer worlds and how they transpire.

Website: Rikki Turner