Matthew Stone pushes painting into the digital realm

Matthew Stone’s latest exhibition at The Hole in New York, Staggered Paintings, opens a provocative dialogue between traditional painting and digital technology. The show, on view until January 11th, 2026, positions Stone at the forefront of contemporary art, exploring how digital painting can expand the expressive possibilities of oil on canvas.

Digital painting meets traditional craft

Staggered Paintings presents nine large-scale works depicting candlelit dancing figures in motion. Stone uses a layered process whereby each brushstroke is photographed, mapped onto 3D digital figures, reworked in simulation and then printed onto a hand-prepared oil surface, before being hand-painted again. This iterative method merges the physical and the digital, resulting in paintings that are self-aware of their own construction yet still possess the emotive presence of traditional oil paintings.

Stone describes his approach as “painting as an iterative mediation,” where digital tools and human gesture coexist. The works invite viewers to slow their gaze, contemplating both the painted image and the technological process embedded within it—a subtle commentary on how digital culture shapes perception.

Art exhibition New York: highlighted works

Among the pieces, Whirling Figures I captures bodies in fluid, interlaced motion, echoing dance troupes and celestial choreography. Another painting, Candles in Flow, blends impasto textures with digitally choreographed poses, creating a sense of luminous movement that shifts depending on the viewer’s perspective. A third, Simulated Embrace, emphasizes relational intimacy between figures while foregrounding the layering of analogue and digital brushstrokes—a visual testament to Stone’s hybrid methodology.

The artist’s vision

Created at Matr Labs in Red Hook, New York, in collaboration with MIT engineers and artists, this body of work highlights Stone’s sustained experimentation with painting as a technology. His process, spanning photography, CGI, and oil, demonstrates that digital painting is not a departure from craftsmanship but an expansion of it. Stone’s fascination with bodies, movement, and somatic experience—rooted in his early London nightclub collaborations—permeates the exhibition, ensuring that each painting maintains a visceral, human presence despite its technological mediation.