23 Oct Morgan Stokes | Skeleton | Curatorial+Co.

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 it’s 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 it’s surface. That is to say, Skeleton is an exploration of an unseen essentialness. Evident here is Stokes’ continuing preoccupation in how our mode of perceptions change as the world becomes increasingly mediated by the screen. The works embody a corporeality, they are studies in matter and not images, and can be seen as formal exercises in reduction to understand the vitality of form and material. Stokes is not only investigating the objecthood of painting, he is imbuing matter with a philosophical resonance in an age of the immaterial.

Morgan Stokes’ artistic practice delves into the mediums of painting and sculpture, deconstructing them to their fundamental elements. He begins with the traditional building blocks of each – pigment, cloth, stretcher bars, stone – then embarks upon a process of reinterpretation, interrogating the supposed value of each part and its role within the widely understood formula of what makes an artwork. Both literal and philosophical, Skeleton is a dialogue between body and material; a contemplation on what makes a painting in the digital age. Recalling the movements of Arte Povera, Mono-Ha and Minimalism and considered from a post-internet lens, Skeleton transcends the canvas, acting as a meditation on the seen and the unseen.

Skeleton is Stokes’ fourth exhibition with the gallery, following Skin (2023), Virtual Gaze (2022) and Concerning Existence (2021).

Video: Simon Hewson