Lot
39
Untitled
Enamel paint on canvas, 2010
36 x 30,5 cm
Estimate
$1 100
Justin Stephens’ Untitled is a small-scale painting composed of blue spots of paint on a white ground. In effect, the work appears as large ink blots on paper; these stains push out beyond the precise lines of their circular forms, bleeding onto the “page”. Like much of Stephens’ studio-based practice, Untitled is the result of a fixation with the properties of materials at the artist’s disposal. This small painting explores the sweet spot between the hard edge of abstraction and the leaky nature of paint.
Biographical note
Canadian artist Justin Stephens currently resides in Glasgow where he is completing his graduate studies at the Glasgow School of Art. His work was featured in Stay Vector Stay! as part of the Glasgow International Art Festival in 2012 and in the Musée d’art Contemporain de Montréal’s Triennial in 2011. Stephens has presented solo exhibitions at Toronto’s Mercer Union and the Darling Foundry in Montreal. He was a semi-finalist in the prestigious annual Royal Bank of Canada painting competition in both 2007 and 2008. His work can be found in the collection of the National Museum of Québec, corporate collections such as RBC Dexia, and private collections throughout Canada, France, Australia, and the United States.