Ten years ago the mathematician Thomas Hales proved that the hexagonal geometry used by honey bees to build their hives was the most efficient structure to produce maximum cells with least wax. In the publication of “On the Origin of Species”, Charles Darwin claimed that those creatures most adept at mathematics would come out on top. The object oriented or database model of knowledge is replacing the sequential, cinematic narrative of the 20th century.

Abstract geometric works begin with very structured and defined patterns to which deviations are introduced as the painting develops, bringing chaos into order until balance is found. Structure, order and chaos are counterpointed in the dialectics of the grid in ambitious works. The historical context of de Stijl - its utopian idealism, use of the grid and reductive aesthetic are evoked in this attempt to build the reduced grid back up again with a language that is aware of postmodernity whilst keying into modernist ideas.