Art Choice

Mark Joyce’s mesmerising paintings are the result of a deep fascination with the properties of light and the contradictions arising from capturing an immaterial subject through painting. Joyce draws on myriad references from both science and art, with Newton’s experiments with optics a clear influence on the rainbow-like stripes in almost all of the works, including Rosa. Music, and particularly efforts to transcribe sounds, is also a key source of inspiration in works such as Thomas Tallis, which evokes the medieval composer’s groundbreaking work in layering sounds. Joyce’s experiments using a telescope to view the night sky provided the starting point for Nightlines. The paintings wear their learning lightly, and there is an exuberance and playfulness in the way they interact with each other. The transparent quality of many of the works draws the viewer into a dream world of graceful lines and delicate brushstrokes, and together they represent a meditation on the history of painting and on the tensions between nature and technology.