This beautifully austere series Atelier, recently completed by Arturo Di Stefano, may come as a surprise to those familiar with the artist's airy cityscapes. Few realise that the transition of early mythological and historical subjects to the subject of cities had in fact started in the studio, also the source of inspiration for this new work.

A painful incident ocurred in 1987; the painter lost his studio in a devastating fire. He resolved the event by 'confronting' his immediated environment; the studio. Then he slowly ventured out, into the street, over bridges, by the Thames, in an ever increasing circle of urban space.

The artist's recurrent meditiation on darkness and light has returned to the studio. In Atelier, Arturo seems shut out from the outside world and at the same time attracted to it; open doors and windows invite him out. With this series of 10 woodcuts Arturo Di Stefano stands, contemplative, at the junction of the inside and outside, within and without, in an abstracted world lit by a flash of awareness, in a perfect though fragile equilibrium.