Stephen Palmer makes paintings and screen prints that catalogue everyday items from a personal collection of usually ‘free’ or ‘found’ objects – matchboxes collected in pubs, pens that have been sent through the post by charities and credit card companies, and sugar sachets collected as mementos of trips to places far and wide. The paintings present these objects in small groups and leave the viewer to create connections between the items depicted. The objects depicted often feature designs and logos that add to their purpose and functionality, sometimes in themselves miniature works of art that create allusions to long distant shores or remarkable feats of creativity, political power and design.

 

Alongside painting, Stephen makes short digital films that have a more clearly defined narrative. These can be based on ‘found’ stories from internet, TV or newspapers, things seen around and about, or obsessed over while watching TV.