Robilant+Voena is pleased to announce an exhibition of paintings by Stephen Appleby-Barr in London. This is the Canadian-born artist’s first exhibition with Robilant+Voena since 2022, presenting a new body of work that has taken him two years to create. Together, the paintings offer a glimpse into a realm of wondrous yet familiar visions, combining Appleby-Barr’s immense technical mastery with dreamlike imaginings disconnected from time or place.

The exhibition presents the artist’s Mesocosmos, a self-contained universe that sits in the interstitial space between the macro and the micro, between before and after, between fiction and non-fiction, a shifting sphere shaped by an innately personal relationship with the world.

The twenty paintings in the exhibition have an almost spectral quality, treading a fine line between visual exactitude and the possibility of the unknown. The world of Appleby-Barr’s paintings is peopled by fantastical figures set against dreamlike architectural structures and hazy landscapes. The artist presents us with situations that ambiguous and compelling, allowing the viewer to find their own narrative path through his Mesocosmos. While undoubtedly contemporary – the artist punctuates his paintings with wry humour, the occasional incongruous cigarette dropping from a figure’s lips – the works have a timeless essence, reminiscent of Old Masters whom Appleby-Barr admires.