(selected by Oliver Buckley)
New Façade, 2003
Toby Paterson's interest in line, form and structure grew out of skate boarding around defunct concrete buildings. He works in a variety of forms, from large-scale architectural wall paintings and sculptural assemblages to small paintings on Perspex, informed by post-war architecture, the St Ives School of Modernists (in particular Victor Pasmore and Ben Nicholson) and the pragmatic approach of the British Constructivists. Paterson's understanding of architectural structures is heightened by his interest in skateboarding, experiencing cities and buildings as micro-spaces to navigate, viewed as a series of surfaces to isolate and present in his paintings. The examples of Modernist architecture Paterson references can be seen to be elevated to an iconic status translating complex motifs from the lost dreams of post-war modernism into an aesthetic and social enquiry.
In response to the Constructivist works in the Tate Collection, Paterson created a major site-specific work, 'An Isometric Plan', in the curved space surrounding the double staircase on the fourth floor of Tate St Ives (October 2004 January 2005).
In February 2005, Paterson will make a piece for the Barbican Art Gallery, London, which will examine the forms, strategies and ideologies involved in the reconstruction of the built environment. Other current projects include a series of public works: two architectural murals for the new Home Office building on Marsham Street, London; a piece for the high-speed Eurostar link in Kent; and a wall painting for Aberdeen University.
Paterson (b. 1974) studied at the Glasgow School of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago. He won the Becks Futures award in 2002 and has since had solo exhibitions in Glasgow, London and Paris. He lives and works in Glasgow.
November 2004
