"At present I am evolving a painterly visual language which encompasses various aesthetic devices: structural form, organic features, tone, shape or mark, drawn together to utilise its own idiom as an ever more complex reference.
 
These techniques are deployed in an arbitrary and abstract movement that has led to a procrustean tone within my production. This is rooted in a long-standing laconic engagement with collage that runs parallel to a mechanical detachment from the image. This acts as a driver for a system of tearing apart and rearranging, throughout the process, until a deliberately awkward, visceral, discordant equilibrium of imbalanced elements is achieved within the materiality of the painterly language.
 
This structure and stimuli form a mutable armature of hard edged abstraction onto which more recent expressive organic qualities ultimately adhere. This confluence occurs within the confines of the canvas in varying forms; encompassing subdued minimal composition through to dense evasive shields of mark making. These moments I wish to harness with a more controlled approach such as the recent expansion of collage has led me to include found imagery onto the canvas, these collaged elements are obliquely appear intertwined within the painterly plane, almost drawn marks of paint, acting as face value shields of language."
 
Tom Owen's work is brought to you in partnership with studio1.1, an artist-run, not for profit space based on Redchurch Street, London (more information)

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• 10/06/10 ArtLab and studio1.1 announce partnership