Michael Cubey is a painter. He grew up and trained in New Zealand, then relocated to London. Michael has exhibited in the UK, Australia and New Zealand.
Contact:
- email: michael@cubey.org
- instagram: @michaelcubey
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"It's a fairly ridiculous activity to be engaged in, painting. All you can do try to make the very best paintings that you can…within your own terms."
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About the paintings:
Cubey’s paintings have always been physical, tangible things, very much manmade objects. This has been a constant as he has moved from early abstraction, through expressive formalism, then introduing figuration into the mix.
His painting now hovers in a restless space between, incorporating elements of his work from the last 3 decades, straddling abstract concerns and narrative impulses.
The vibrant colours and luscious surfaces often give way to darker hidden menaces beneath and reveal glimpses of stories. The confusion is embraced and acknowledged, more questions than answers.
He uses oil paint with a host of overglazes and varnishs, on a range of supports ranging from canvas to repurposed wooden objects, brushes and flattened out tin paint tubes.
He works across a range of scales, from almost minature pieces to larger multiple panelled paintings.
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"The question marks started off as a sign of my uncertainty venturing into figurative territory (‘What do you paint?’), and a riposte to the expectation that artists should 'communicate' or worse 'self express' through painting."
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"The laughing heads, well they are just there, watching and mocking me, you, all of us…"
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