Callum Innes

In Callum Innes’s "Exposed" paintings, pigment is diligently layered and removed: oil paint is first painted onto the canvas and then, before it has finished drying, brushed over again with turpentine - washing out and partially effacing the previously applied colour field. This act of "unpainting" results in complex, nuanced abstractions, revealing the depth of variation within the curtains of colour as each layer is applied and re-applied. The result evokes a simplicity of form that gravitates around the elemental, fluid nature of colour and the depths to be found in the simplicity of form. Exposed Violet Painting #1 is an early example, comprising two fields of black and white. While at first glean this appears monochromatic, the work denies stark geometries or pure colour: a subtle iridescence animates the surface; and the bisecting, violet center line is softened, slightly off balance, betraying the hand of the artist and grounding the work in the humanistic act of painting. By breaking down singular paint into its fluid traces, Innes captures colour in the act of its dissolution, and arrests his chromatic fields in a moment that continually oscillates between visibility and concealment.