Sam Cranstoun, Jules Verne (Reentry), 2025, oil on linen, 163 × 229 cm

To Move Not Under The Stars But Through Them is an exhibition of paintings that grapple with and try to make sense of the present moment. Drawn from the artist’s archive of open-source images, these paintings address the legacies of modernism and imperialism – reflecting on how we use narrative, history, identity, politics, memory and culture to shape both an individual and collective understanding of the world we inhabit.

By compulsively amassing images from a range of archival sources and painstakingly rendering them in oil, Sam Cranstoun presents paintings that consider the micro and the macro – the narrow street and the wide world. Blurred fragments of the night sky, floral snapshots that hover between the decorative and the taxonomical, and contemporary still life arrangements speak to the wonder of small moments.

The images, all taken from online resources, collected by the artist during online exploration, speak to a number of different themes and concepts, honouring the archives these images have been uploaded to, and the individuals who thought them worthy of cataloging and preserving.

Drawing from broader cultural and historical narratives, as well as the artist’s personal experiences, the works contemplate how we value and prioritise modes of visual representation, as well as the art-historical, sociopolitical and globalist implications of everything we see and touch.

Opening event: Thursday 5 June, 6-8pm