Simon Ingram’s work is an intriguing antidote to what is currently being bandied about as Zombie Formalism. However, an initial glance, without knowing anything about how Simon’s paintings are made, might lead one to erroneously put a given piece into that category. There is an observable flatness and repetition that can be immediately recognized as strangely empty. But a longer view reveals the opposite to be true. If Zombie Formalism is a stupor, a malaise where the artist gives up initiative and innovation, Ingram’s work is one of fascinating attentiveness and startling invention. Each composition is the result of considerations most artists never begin to cross. His practice involves making robotic machines from Lego, custom built hardware and software that paint autonomously. Another strand of work involves creating paintings by hand that use artificial life systems to dictate composition and decision making. Simon’s work is further testament that non-objective, reductive painting can be fertile ground to artists who are willing to explore its unique conceptual signification.