(b, 2001, Canada)

There is an obvious presence of digital representation that runs throughout Kate Scheibli’s paintings with the use of iconography appropriated from Super Mario Bros. as well as the vibrant collections of pixels that glow from the canvas. By using popular and recognisable imagery she aims to evoke a sense of nostalgia and comfort that allows her work to engage a wide audience. The work is playful in nature and aims to be a source of enjoyment.

Kate Scheibli has been making investigations into Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s state of ‘flow’ and the way in which loss of time and self-conscious rumination is achieved in her process of painting; a conscious comparison to what many gamers experienced while playing video games.

Her work also discusses the square and what it represents in art history as well as what it means in contemporary society –from screens and computers in the modern day, to the De Stijl manifesto about balance within art and design. The square provides an architecture for a painting, something she likes to work with compositionally and ideologically.

The work is a representation of technology’s influence over contemporary painting, which is achieved through the combination of rigid digital structure and painterly and expressive brushstrokes inspired by the abstract expressionists.