Born in Concrete

"Life and death, nature and technology, animal and human all collide in Derek Stenning's vivid, eye-catching depictions of cosmonauts as freedom fighters, struggling above the earth in a simultaneously hard and smooth sky. With a colour palette as juxtaposed as his images, Stenning's bold lines and geometric shapes tell a narrative of intolerance and stasis in a bleak cityscape, and remaking of this world by an artist-warrior escaping the chains of both gravity and society. He invokes symbols of the natural world and images of birth to remake artistic expression in a more liberated space. Above all, these artworks, beginning as sketches and evolving with computer graphics, convey raw emotion, as well as the tension and personal struggle within the artist."

- Adan Jerreat-Poole
Rooms Art Uncovered Magazine

"Victoria, BC-based Derek Stenning creates otherworldly compositions. Astronauts circling space stations in the future, floating in space, falling into deeper outer space are all the situations in the highly detailed work, as well as some remarkable space suit construction."

- Juxtapoz