London based artist, Paul Stephenson, creates his work through a form of painting called Sous Rature. The definition for this technique, involves the crossing out of a word within a text, but allowing it to remain legible and in place. Stephenson elevates this further, through his remixing of old original works of art into something new and modern.

“Instead of using a blank canvas I take original artwork (not prints or multiples) created by other artists and erase parts of them. The result is destructive and creative, a forced collaboration, iconoclasm; image breaking in the literal sense and what constitutes graffiti is neither the inscription nor its message but the wall, the background, the surface; it is because the background exists fully as an object that has already lived, that such writing always comes as an enigmatic surplus, that is what disturbs the order of things.” – Stephenson.

Stephenson created a major buzz in the art world in 2010, stemming from his odyssey into the world of Warhol. He purchased a collection of the artist’s original acetates, and followed Warhol’s original techniques and materials. His ensuing collection – created in collaboration with one of Warhol’s original master printers, Alexander Heinrici, was titled ‘After Warhol’.

Paul felt strongly invested in replicating each stage of Warhol’s practice with unwavering conviction than the artist himself would have deemed necessary. This sparked the debate as to whether Stephenson’s Warhol prints could be considered genuine works of art by Warhol, or not.

The subject of the painting is given significance by its absence. His works of art can be described as such: ‘It was a painting, now it is a painting.’