The Belfast stencil artist describes himself; ‘First and foremost ‘I am a painter, although I do like to think of myself as a bit of a jack of all trades and dabble in other forms of visual art.’
Cunningham, who for the most part, produces his work on canvas, tells us ‘As a stencil artist I painstakingly take blade to card and cut clean and precise marks to produce layers which are sprayed with aerosol paint to build up each line and colour on the canvas.’
‘For me everything I create from paintings to small vinyl toys have to have a crisp, clean cut machine like aesthetic. Although everything I make is done by hand I want the viewer to be mystified at how each piece is produced and ultimately question if it is machine or man made. Each piece I make is done so with this clean cut approach and ethic.
‘Thematically as a painter I heavily focus on my contemporary surroundings for inspiration and ask people to question certain ideals that people sometimes take as fact and not opinion. Advertising and media feature heavily in my work along with unquestioned ideals of capitalism and government ruling. I don’t profess to give any answers through my paintings I merely subvert and provide my own social commentary on contemporary issues in order to show other perspectives and open a dialogue for the viewer to draw their own opinions, and hopefully question the social norms that we are force fed by today's media outlets and governing bodies.
