Un pequeno parte de algo mas grande 1 (A Small Part of Something Larger) (2010)

Private Collection

Kitty Scott, “Stephen Andrews: Painter, Potter, Photographer…”, “Stephen Andrews POV”, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, 2015, page 116

Andrews’ practice mediates between digital and analogue technologies to explore the connection of the self to the social and of the body to the body politic. Often working from references that seem to depict anonymity—crowded stadiums and parties, public transit stations, and war zones—Andrews translates the impersonal qualities of commercial printing methods and mass media imagery by rendering mechanically reproduced pictures via handmade means, allowing them to acquire meaning and become rooted in place through his engagement with his chosen medium. These tensions reside at the heart of works like “Un pequeno parte de algo mas grande” (‘a small part of something larger’). Created at a printmaking studio in Barcelona, the lithograph arose from photographic source material and drawings produced in Toronto, yet shares serendipitous connections with the Spanish city’s history, geography, and people. As the artist explained in 2010, the loose appearance of the human forms within the composition brings to mind the “young Picasso at Els Quatre Gats” just prior to his his first experiments with Cubism. Barcelona itself, he continued, is “bisected by an avenue called 'Diagonal', echoing the strong diagonals in the litho[graph]. At a techno concert there, large LED screens projected not dissimilar images of the gathered crowd. Quite unintentionally, it all seemed to make perfect sense.” Framing for this lot generously supplied by Superframe.