Abstract painter Steve Joy was born in Plymouth in 1952. He studied at Cardiff College of Art and during the 1970s went on to gain a BA Honours from Exeter College of Art and a Masters in Fine Art from the Chelsea School of Art in London. In the early 1980s he was the recipient of a Fellowship at Cheltenham College of Art and undertook a second MFA at Kyoto University of Arts in Japan. He has since held the position of Professor at Trondheim School of Art and the Bergen National Academy of Fine Arts in Norway, as well as the Ecole des Beaux Art in France, and has been a guest lecturer at many international schools of fine art. His work is held in numerous public collections including those of the Lincoln Centre, New York; the United States Embassy Collection, Washington D.C.; the Joslyn Museum, Nebraska; The Japan Foundation, Tokyo, and the Arts Council of Great Britain. While he continues to travel extensively, he is currently based in a studio loft in the Old Market of Omaha, Nebraska USA.
Steve Joy is one of the world’s most respected artists and academics, a Master painter whose career has been devoted to interrogating and developing the language of non-objective art. Inspired by his early studies of 20th century American painters including Rothko, Pollock and Newman, along with his intensive studies of Pre Renaissance, Renaissance, and medieval painting, Joy’s work reflects his deep engagement with the theory and practice of history’s most influential artists and thinkers.
“I find that the complex techniques used in Medieval painting enable the paintings to transcend their physicality, a perfect way to push the techniques of abstraction toward a better communication of their merits; particularly in the way that a painting can take a person’s mind to a place they may not have been before. The digital age and fast access to information may have reduced our ability to look at anything for any length of time. My journeys and immersion in ancient cultures and civilisations has resulted in my wanting to capture at least some abiding spiritual depth; a sense of place and of lost civilisations, from the ancient Maya, to the temples of Cambodia and the Far East; Stonehenge in England, and the great Cathedrals of Europe. These mysteries are worth preserving since we can’t always go there. Painting for me, including some ten years or so of inspiration from Icon painting, has become a way of holding onto memories and feelings of place, and a way to bring the achievements of the past into a contemporary framework. Painting can transport the mind to a new place, whilst at the same time reminding us of some of the great achievements in art, architecture and cultures of the past. Painting of an abstract nature can, I believe, record a sense of place and a moment frozen in time”. Steve Joy