This has been a constant as he has moved from early plays on constructivist paintings through a painterly expressive formalism and now hovers in a restless space between, incorporating elements of his work from the last 20 years, straddling abstract concerns and narrative impulses, not comfortable in just one place, needing both object and narrative.
Lush or roughly worked surfaces often give way to darker hidden menaces beneath and reveal glimpses of stories partially told;. half remembered, half forgotten. The confusion and contradiction is embraced and acknowledged.
Michael uses oil paint with a host of overglazes and varnishes, on a range of supports ranging from stretched canvas to flattened out used paint tubes, the old studio chair...adding in what's needed and cutting out what's not.
Lush or roughly worked surfaces often give way to darker hidden menaces beneath and reveal glimpses of stories partially told;. half remembered, half forgotten. The confusion and contradiction is embraced and acknowledged.
Michael uses oil paint with a host of overglazes and varnishes, on a range of supports ranging from stretched canvas to flattened out used paint tubes, the old studio chair...adding in what's needed and cutting out what's not.
Cubey’s paintings have always been physical, tangible, very much manmade objects...