David Haines' (UK) paintings are predicated upon skilfully rendered archetypal narratives following in the wake of abstraction, conceptual art and photography. For the past years he has been developing a body of new work that ties itself to the gravity of painting within the context of the new information age and overloaded digital image culture. Invested in the history of European painting, Haines has arrived at a language for painting, which not only speaks to the ancestor spirits of Holbein, Hals and Vermeer but is also fully grounded in our current society driven by images and (technological) consumerism.
The paintings follow the logic of representing where the human condition is negotiated and transacted through the LCD screen. The influence of the screen within the history of classical art roams freely in this work, screens that reveal images and conceal their making, screens which shimmer with patchworks of sumptuous brushwork and glazed oil filled surfaces that reflect.
'Signal' (2023) explores one of the most widely reproduced online images depicting an infected human eye. Haines reproduces this image as two panel paintings, implying two seemingly identical left eyes, positioned side by side. This deliberate arrangement signals to its slight material disparities and unique qualities. The exhausted gaze that is understood from the artwork, not only reflects the societal malaise of our time, but also underscores the significance of tangible encounters in a world saturated by an overwhelming, constant surplus of digital visual stimuli.