In his second solo exhibition at Galerie Simon Blais, Mark Stebbins will show a group of new paintings and ink-jet prints. 

Continuing to make use of “pixel aesthetics,” this time Stebbins has explored a more figurative approach to his painting. In a number of instances, his nostalgia-tinged works are based on family photographs. The artist succeeds here in reconciling the past and the future in a single image. Somewhat like a mosaic or a knit, the initial image serves as a grid for the work of pixelation, of piecing together smaller particles.

Now infinitely alterable, pixels have become the ideal representation of our modern world and the flow of information within it, transforming and defining our experience of reality. Despite the entire process of “obliteration” of information the artist subjects his images to, our brains continue to make sense of what is in front of them—which leads us to ask ourselves about just what our eyes are seeing, about the reality of that information.

In order to create his images and make his ink-jet prints, Stebbins uses scans of various fabrics or other materials, all of which have a family connection. In this way, like a quilt, he mingles a number of levels of reality. Moreover, by incorporating this new technique into his practice, Stebbins increases the size of his works, as well as makes us further penetrate their intricacies.