Jonathan Bishop's work speaks a universal language of emotion, yet is extraordinarily distinctive. Highly expressive and at the same time quietly introspective, his idiosyncratic and experimental style embraces divergent influences, yet throughout, the pervasive essence of his art is one of order and form.

The figures of Jonathan's paintings belong to an optimistic sort of utopia, but one that needn't be an anachronism, as they never purport to be anything more than paintings. His work is precisely unconcerned with communicating a verbal ideal, but is, rather, a humbly ambitious ideal in itself. That people see and respond to beautiful aesthetics is all that the characters of Jonathan's creations ask of you. Aesthetics are their language.

Having completed his Foundation Course at Chelsea in 1994, Bishop went on to study Interior Architecture at Brighton University, where he developed an attention to the aesthetic of space, which is clearly reflected in his art. After completing his degree at Brighton, Bishop travelled frequently gathering inspirations, during which time his long-standing love of painting came to the fore. It was at this time, around the age of 25, Bishop started on the first series of his unique "Ci Men" - contemplative, solitary figures, even when grouped. The most remarkable quality of these vulnerable, childlike Ci Men are their faces, which reveal a depth of emotion with an unnerving, expressive maturity.

Eager to move around and absorb different cultures and perspectives, Bishop's work took him to Rome, where he settled for some time and continued the lives of the Ci Men and held a successful show in the gardens of the villa where he lived in the heart of the city. Bishop's fascination for the complexity of the Japanese culture and aesthetic is clearly apparent in the style and casting of these endearing and heartrending characters, while the decorative elements and blocks of colour harnessed in black outline are reminiscent of Matisse.

In 1999, Bishop returned to London, where the Ci Men's eyes grew bigger, bolder and more expressive: they started to accumulate even more experience and maturity, as did he.

After 2000 his work progressed in a dramatic way. On convalescing, after a serious accident, the Ci Men morphed into much more fluid, sketchier figures, and his work became less restrained and more fragmented. He started painting what can be described as "Stickmen", in a constant unbroken line, hundreds to a canvas and containing spurges of colour. His work changed from being poised and serene to appearing busy and restless, a metaphor of what his body was no longer able to do at that time. Yet, although the energy of these canvases is highly charged, on careful inspection, the Stickmen still are spaced and formed with meticulous evenness.

As time progressed, he explored this new style with different techniques, using acrylic pushed through syringes to create a fluid line on huge canvases. In 2002 he returned to Italy with a suitcase of nine canvases, which he carried around with him, adding to and developing as he travelled. The childlike element of the Ci Men is still present in the Stickmen, yet in a different form. Over time, the Stickmen became larger and, rather than painting them en masse on a canvas, Bishop started to isolate them. They became single figures on the canvas, their heads wider, their eyes bigger: individuals painted in one continuous line. Busier descendents of the Ci Men, they retain the same contemplative, expressive trait.