"I often look through my old sketchbooks to rethink ideas which have been overlooked – either because they were not quite right for that particular moment or because I had not yet worked out how to go about making them. This piece is one of those, a recurrent image first appearing in around 2012 and reasserting itself sporadically over the years. In 2020 one of these reoccurrences coincided with some experiments I was doing with stretched canvas over board. I liked the idea that the addition of canvas gave the harsh geometry a softer edge. It is important to me that the works not only have a strong graphic presence but also the capability to draw in the viewer and tell a deeper story. I made two ‘Environments’, one larger one with two different whites and a slightly smaller reconfigured version in ultramarine blue." (Shawn Stipling, 2021)

At first glance the paintings of Shawn Stipling appear almost machine-made; the precision of the lines and seemingly industrial surfaces belie their intensely handmade production. But looking more closely, beyond these initial impressions, we start to see that all is not as we first thought. The measurements are ‘off’ – more random than mathematical, elements are sometimes slightly skewed, lines do not meet edges where we somehow feel they should. We are being asked to look more closely, to slow down, to step forward, and in doing so, we begin to see the true identity of these works emerge.