“When I was making this Untitled series I was sharing a studio with four artists who were making installation set-plays and film and this informed my approach to these works,” Nicholas Byrne explains. “It was important to me that the paintings evoked a visual response that was similar to how we appreciate the physical sensation of an object. Untitled (Collar) is small scale and conveys a kind of privacy. You might think of a surrealist tradition of game-play, where bodies cross into objects. I suppose these diamond shapes could be the teeth of a stylus or comb. A feeling of tension might arise, where optically the shapes and colours would promise to fold or collapse. The paintings are presented on architectural supports as I wanted them to demonstrate something physically active.”