Skeleton

OPENING DRINKS 5:30-8pm Wednesday 9 October.

Curatorial+Co. is thrilled to present a dynamic new solo exhibition by multimedia artist, Morgan Stokes, in our Woolloomooloo gallery.

What significance can be found in the structure of something? A skeleton gives shape and coherence to a body. It symbolises the bare essence, the stripped-down truth and thus it also becomes a symbol for the pursuit of authenticity. A skeleton is also death and mortality, like the vanitas, it is a reminder of the transience of life; the temporal against the eternal. Just as the skeletal frame provides both constraint and possibility for movement in a living being, the underlying principles and frameworks in art both limit and liberate.

Following Stokes’ previous exhibition with Curatorial+Co., Skin, which examined the outermost layer, Skeleton ventures within. The show hums with a naked, elemental current. We find the works in a state of flux, between creation and destruction, openness and darkness, lightness and heaviness, fullness and emptiness. Balance, tone, space and, pertinently, form: the elements of painting have been amputated from one another to be scrutinised in a material dimension. This emphasis on form underscores the process of creation as each work highlights its own physicality. Thus, the show also become a meditative exploration of not only the creative act but also the medium of painting itself and what lies beneath its surface. That is to say, Skeleton is an exploration of an unseen essentialness.