About

• Recently, Michael Andrew Page has recalled the work of John Leland (1503-1552), who traveled England in search of the country's regional curiosities and who itinerary writings play a vital part in formulating the country's national identity.
• Page's continuous antiquarian research ranges from vernacular travel literature and English Etymology to the dilemmas of spatial construction in Italian Renaissance painting. "PYGHTLE", the title of his recent exhibition at Project Native Informant, for example, is a lost Saxon word, describing a small plot of enclosed land. The word "Bivvy" - which he uses to describe the current group of paintings - originated from British WWI army slang, describing a small tent for temporary shelter.
• Page accesses a major theme in his work through this architectural prism: Using hyper-realistic representations of architectural detail and a precise set of methodical working steps, he investigates what he calls psychogeography through form and colour.
• Starting with a computer-generated CAD model, he uses Cyanotype to transfer his architectural elements from the digital sketch to the primed canvas, before he tries to "...coerce the paint to mimic three-dimensionality". While the imagery and colour palette are approximations of architectural details conjured up from the artist's memory, the final canvases share a number of formal characteristics, including size, medium and rigid geometric boundaries.
• Like the patterns radiating from stained glass windows in a place of worship, Page's paintings shift from the realm of aesthetic reference to abstraction, providing room for the viewer's mind to wander.