Stuart Shave/Modern Art is pleased to announce the first solo show of Katy Moran.

Painted on small-scale linen canvas, Moran’s subjects are initially sourced from the internet - avoiding the literal description of this found imagery by turning it upside down. Recounting only the colours and shapes of this dislocated view, Moran paints until, without contrivance, a figure begins to emerge. Moran’s intuitive and process-based approach to painting illustrates a desire to maintain a sincerity in the spontaneous – alongside a clear and deliberate avoidance of affectation. Moran believes that ‘unintentional marks move to create a more plausible reality’; the overtly constructed paintedartifice engenders the unreal and the disingenuous.

Often working several times from the same image, Moran returns, searching and re-exploring each composition until a final narrative unfolds. Beneath the varnished exterior of the paintings’ surface, thickly applied acrylic paint is moved with the fluidity of oil. Backgrounds often suggest rural or domestic settings, which, alongside the muted, natural tones of Moran’s palette – evoke the feeling of Romanticist portraiture. The figured subjects that foreground Moran’s compositions however, are abstract in their renderings, showing themselves only in the slight insinuation of limbs or gestures.

Katy Moran (b.1975) lives and works in London and is currently included in Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2006, which will open in London in November. Moran was also featured in A Broken Arm at 303 Gallery, New York earlier this year.