Looking at Stefan's practice, we can find echoes of figures such as John Cage and his sound theory and Keith Johnstone's improvisations. First and foremost though, Stefan is concerned with the act of painting and the development of his chosen medium. It is unsurprising then that he has been influenced by Sigmar Polk's investigations into photography, Rauschenberg's fascination for printing and the conductor, Sergiu Celibidache's focus on creating a transcendent experience for the audience.
CARBUNAR 140x100cm
UNTITLED 260x200cm
Stefan's deliberate process makes it difficult for the eye to settle on his paintings' surfaces. Instead, like trying to find the horizon line in fog, the light bounces back at us, constantly shifting. One moment we are drawn into microscopic, even macroscopic details, at another we are expelled, forced back to try and 'read' the night or landscape that is actually a series of marks like pixels. In common with a CT scan, the images that Stefan makes can only be made possible with the aid of technology. The idea of seeing something that is confirmed by a scientific process and can only be translated into a readable image through this procedure is fascinating to Stefan. He is drawn to 3D scans, satellite photographs, cosmology, the animation of black holes and dark matter.
UNTITLED 200x260cm
RIBCAGE 200x140cm
COLD AMUSEMENT 200x155cm
CARBUNAR | 140x100cm
UNTITLED | 260x200cm
UNTITLED | 200x260cm
RIBCAGE | 200x140cm
COLD AMUSEMENT | 200x155cm
