In the contemporary art environment, the forms and visual imagery of two-dimensional painting have become resistant to clear, simple definitions. From a different perspective, the need to define visual imagery or painterly forms appears to have diminished. This is largely because the audience’s visual experience today and how they understand it, as well as the pathways and ideas artists communicate through their works, are now largely shaped by a complex, extensive system of visual signs rooted in technological progress and the development of the times. Consequently, this complexity undermines the traditional value used in art history to analyse an artist’s visual expression, while also creating a space of ‘uncertainty’ for interpreting images.

This exhibition examines the theme of ‘uncertainty’ in contemporary painting by exploring how artists’ creative practices reveal deeper meanings behind visual imagery. Emily Wolfe uses collage techniques to tangibly bring the fluidity of memory and emotions to her canvases, where images no longer serve as just a single reference. Cameron Martin employs photorealistic painting to illustrate the uncertainty of painting through landscape—a genre often deemed stylistically weak—to emphasise that perfect representation is no longer the sole approach. Nicholas Middleton uses his signature monochromatic palette to translate the three-dimensional qualities of images onto the two-dimensional canvas, implying that images cannot fully match authentic visual experiences and highlighting a rethinking of painterly forms. Greet Van Autgaerden’s colourful, fragmented rendering deconstructs visual reality and transfers it onto a canvas marked by broken images, immersing audiences in the visual tension he creates and expanding the possibilities of landscape imagery. Song Sheau-Ming’s realistic depiction of masking tape as a visual metaphor repeatedly explores the definition of realist painting and the value of flat materiality in painting.

Artists from Aotearoa New Zealand, the United States, the United Kingdom, Belgium and Taiwan share their views on the expression of imagery through their works, illustrating the enduring importance of painting. The worth of an image need not be shown directly on the canvas. Instead, the ways of viewing built upon the two-dimensionality of the canvas not only provide audiences with answers but also guide them into a more expansive imaginative realm derived from painting.