No Change 001 By Steve Smythe

The work of Steve Smythe is flavoured by his background as a graphic designer. Smythe's prints - which make deft use of mixed-media techniques, collage styles, and material innovation - are distinguished by their bold use of colour and compositional practices, crossing the line from graphics to art in the style of early Warhol or Paolozzi. 'No Change 001' employs bricolage technique to exceptional success: Smythe has layered together shards and fragments, torn from magazines, around the black and white image of a woman, one hand poised provocatively over her mouth. To finish the print, Smythe has added lashings of spray paint in high contrast colour. The piece is saturated with juxtapositions, using photographic portraiture to abstracted effect, and merging grainy black and white with pop colour, for a distinctive and striking aesthetic.