Mitch Cairns, Narrow Cast, 2025, vinyl on linen, framed, 78.5 × 94 × 5.5 cm, TCG022642

artist statement: Unlike my oil paintings, this work – made with vinyl-cut lettering on primed linen – refuses to play into the painterly standards I’m often associated with. The phrase ‘Quality Beer Nuts’ comes from a pub snack packet: a bold promise for something so generic. On one level, it’s amusing. On another, it’s metaphoric. Beer nuts are akin to images; they are consumed and partial to the vagaries of popular culture. The title refers to art itself as a form of narrowcasting – with images moving through limited, specialised channels. The work asks how we determine value in the making of images and what systems, both inside and outside the studio, we trust to do so.