The Approach E2 is pleased to present the first solo show by London based painter Sam Windett.

Sam Windett’s paintings are rendered in sensitive brushstrokes and palette in which everyday objects such as cups, pipes, straws and paper circles appear as mysterious symbols encrypted within the surface. Some paintings are based on still life constructions and then translated into abstract surfaces and textures. Titles such as ‘Pipe with sticks’ and ‘Cup with sticks’ play on the traditional domestic genre whilst reducing it to a primitive form. Focusing on these basic objects as gesture and form is a strategy to reduce unnecessary narrative or rhetoric. Mobile hanging elements become static abstract compositions, with floating circles hinting towards an elemental landscape. Even when a surface is apparently flat the layers of mark making insist on a hand-made depth. Other images are based on recurrent emblematic motifs such as the totemic markings of a medal or a scepter. The trumpet shape of ‘Black Hole’ comes from a scientific diagram of the phenomena, Windett’s loose interpretation translates the diagram into a painterly vortex, while other minimal but considered shapes provide quiet moments of contemplation.