Nine

Alistair Frost's paintings have a light-hearted confidence that belies their subtle complexity. Frequently integrating symbols and signs that can be found within mass media and broader culture, the artist deliberately complicates his paintings' status as abstract works. The simple insertion of a graphic mark releases Frost from the burden of abstraction's history and principles. Working largely in oil on canvas, Frost combines lowbrow subject matter with classical painting, addressing questions of art making and the relationship between images and language.

In BAR/Salon two black marks resembling incomplete speech bubbles float on a fire-engine red canvas. The inclusion of these clipart-like symbols is at once playful yet hints at the depreciation of art through the process of widespread reproduction. The title of Nine is perhaps an allusion to the nine horizontal stripes that adorn the canvas. Here, Frost has arranged bands of midnight blue, deep cobalt and vivid red with expressive yet careful attention to colour, line and composition. Using computer graphics, adobe programmes and digital culture as inspiration, Frost's work incorporates this source material directly into the painting process, resulting in a clash between traditional techniques and contemporary imagery.

Having obtained his Masters of Arts in painting from the Royal College of Art in 2007, Frost has exhibited widely in London and internationally, and has had recent solo shows at Christian Andersen, Copenhagen and Mary Mary, Glasgow.