Text from Michael Staniak's exhibition called "Michael Staniak, IMG_" at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, USA in May - June 2015.

"IMG_ is the first solo museum exhibition of Melbourne-based Michael Staniak, an artist whose paintings intentionally confuse the digital with the handmade, scrutinizing the role of technology today. Staniak’s paintings’ uncanny texture, trompe l’oeil effects, and hyper-saturated pigments can appear as flat when viewed online, or even as if created by 3-D printers or Epson inkjets. However, the work is entirely made by hand; the viewer is required to experience the work in person—IRL—to fully understand its complex physical depth.

Michael Staniak: IMG_ comprises paintings from four recent bodies of work: IMG, Internet Blueprint, DATA, and PNGBinary Code, the first two of which begin with the artist creating a three-dimensional textured relief. Staniak’s IMG_ paintings use fluorescent pigments and holographic gradients to challenge the expectation of flatness, exuding a layered, sculptural quality. Undulations and indentations captured in the plaster’s surface suggest ripples in water or sound waves..."