Unconditional Commitment to Sacred Love - V1 Gallery

V1 GALLERY PROUDLY PRESENTS

UNCONDITIONAL COMMITMENT TO SACRED LOVE

A solo exhibition by MATTHEW STONE

OPENING: FRIDAY AUGUST 03. 2012. TIME: 17.00 - 22.00
EXHIBITION PERIOD: AUGUST 03 – AUGUST 25. 2012.

V1 Gallery proudly presents British artist Matthew Stoneʼs second solo exhibition in Denmark.
The exhibition unfolds a new body of work, shaped by the interlinking of performance,
photography & sculpture.

Stoneʼs work emerges from a personally defined philosophy of Optimism, which he defines as
being “The vital force that entangles itself with and then shapes the future”. In a series of new
works Stone has portrayed his fellow creatives; artists, club-kids, dancers and activists at play. The
stunning black and white works, have a timeless, classic and yet highly original feel to them. At
first glance they resemble archaic etchings or fevered drawings, but upon closer inspection reveal
themselves as photographs, created with a slow shutter speed. Stone was in front of the
camera dancing and painting on his subjects with lasers.

A group of wooden sculptures, composed of birch plywood and brass hinges, fold photographic
images across their surfaces. Stoneʼs photos of entangled limbs become a texture on the surface
grain of the wood along with images of veined marble and cloud-strewn skies. A series of wall
based works on oak, walnut and beech veneered MDF, similarly combine the natural, the industrial
and the digital to create romantic depictions of bodies in unison. Here Stone has re-photographed
his own images, draped as fabric and created new works that occupy a space between
dimensions. His beautiful and formal works are evidence of a living and social sculptural process
that addresses culture as a whole. His title ʻUnconditional Commitment to Sacred Loveʼ forms a
micro manifesto expressing his sincere belief in artʼs potential to connect and illuminate.