Materiality, Sense and Perception in Contemporary Abstract Painting

Materiality offers a theoretical, chronological and situation-based concept for informing and engaging with art practice. Exploring materiality is a means for understanding contemporary art’s function and purpose in the digital age of today. It is the aim of this essay to explore the relationship between painting, its materiality, sense and perception with reference to phenomenological theory and the contemporary abstract painters David Reed and Jacqueline Humphries. The two artists, who have been selected due to their credible and conscious engagement with the digital age’s perceptive effects on painting.