Simon Callery (London, 1960) lives and works in London. His works emphasize materiality and often arise from physical contact with the hard surfaces of the urban environment or the landscape in which he works, frequently on archaeological sites alongside archaeologists from the University of Oxford, with whom he has collaborated for over twenty years. The canvases are marked, cut, pierced, and soaked in highly saturated tempera mediums. The paintings are constructed in the studio, where the elements of the canvas are sewn together to create spaces and voids within the paintings. The artist has stated that he works: