Matteo Massagrande In Dialogue With Stanley Spencer

Pontone Gallery is proud to present a new body of work by acclaimed Italian painter Matteo Massagrande, on view at its London gallery from 6 June to 5 July 2025. This highly anticipated collection features seventeen new paintings inspired by the visionary world of the great Modern British artist Sir Stanley Spencer.

In this unique series, Massagrande enters into a thoughtful dialogue with Spencer’s oeuvre - not through imitation, but through introspective resonance. Drawing on Spencer’s imagery, Massagrande explores the idea of “painting the void,” a concept both artists deeply share. As Massagrande himself states:

“There are two types of painters, those who paint the “full”, for example Freud, and those who paint the’void’. What does it mean to paint the “void”? It means painting everything needed so that the viewer can imagine the subject that the painter had in mind, with their ability to interpret.”

Massagrande’s paintings are not literal tributes, but rather poetic echoes - works that extend Spencer’s legacy into the contemporary moment through a refined and deeply personal visual language. Drawing from both iconic and lesser-known Spencer compositions, these new works offer a quiet, meditative intensity, demonstrating the timelessness of the themes that connect them: solitude, memory, faith, and imagination.
This exhibition is presented in curatorial partnership with the Stanley Spencer Gallery – the Cookham-based Gallery dedicated to the life and work of Sir Stanley Spencer. Amanda Bradley Petitgas, Trustee and Curator and Dr Scot McKendrick, Chair of Trustees, have contributed short essays for the exhibition. McKendrick remarks:

“We are delighted to collaborate with Matteo Massagrande, a contemporary artist whose work draws such clear and rich inspiration from that of Stanley Spencer. This partnership reflects our ongoing mission to engage new audiences with Spencer’s unique artistic legacy and explore its continuing influence within contemporary art.”