Steve Lopes

Copyright  © 2004 Pollock Gallery

 

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Ex Nihilo

Oil on canvas

98 x 170 cm

 

 

 

Antiphon

Oil on canvas

72 x 152  cm

 

 

 

Colpa

Oil on canvas

190 x 145 cm

 

 

 

Slver Fountain

Oil on canvas

184x 132  cm

 

 

 

Harmonia

Oil on canvas

165 x 130  cm

 

 

 

Feux Limbo

Oil on canvas

110 x 110  cm

 

 

 

The Edgeless Above

Oil on canvas

120 x 120  cm

 

 

 

 

The Lookdown

Oil on board

116 x  94  cm

 

 

 

 

Vagabond Emissary

Oil on canvas

62 x 92 cm

 

 

 

 

 

Liberium Landscape ii

Oil on Board

62 x 100 cm

 

 

Vagabond Emissaries

Oil on board

40 x 100 cm

 

 

Limbo Study iv (Bungonia)

Oil on canvas

45 x 35 cm

 

 

Salvific Study iii

Oil on gessoed card

31 x   38 cm

 

 

Flight of Pelagius

Oil on gessoed card

26 x 32 cm

 

 

Salvific Study i

Oil on gessoed card

36 x 28 cm

 

 

Liberium Landscape iv

Oil on gessoed card

117 x 74 cm

 

 

 

 

 

 

Steve Lopes is regarded as one of the country’s most promising young figurative painters. Pollock Gallery is proud to present his poetic peopled landscapes.

 

Inspired by Australia’s landforms, he plants his contemporary figures in an alien landscape where the inhabitants come filled with hope, often in the processes of regenerative cathartic actions or in various symbolic meditative states. Though they may appear to be overawed by their surroundings, they exhibit a quiet charm. These distinctive works are imbued with a large investment of labour and skill which has made them readily recognisable and highly collectable.

 

 

Even though he was born in Sydney Steve carries a deep sense of his heritage and culture that imbeds itself into the landscapes he chooses for the backgrounds of his paintings. They are important to him and important to his pictures.

Nothing in Steve Lopes’s work is chance except perhaps a dribble of paint or a brushstroke that has created an interesting and unexpected effect.

His work is always thematic and he is the director, imagining scenes. The ideas are formulated and through a process of growth are developed into real situations. But are they?

With a fleeting glance Steve’s imagery seems relatively normal, but his works need more than just a cursory glance. Further scrutiny reveals some peculiarities that provokes a multitude of questions. Why is that figure looking this way, what is that man doing. The list of puzzlements goes on and on. Then he throws a few more curly ones in the mix and changes the scale of something or someone .

There is a dark side to Steve Lopes’s work but it is balanced with a light that has an underlying sense of optimism, of regrowth and a positive message that engages the viewer.

 

Lopes has consistently attracted the attention of critics and collectors alike with his rich subject matter. He has an impressive list of awards and exhibition history and has been selected in numerous prestigious national juried shows.

 

 He was a finalist in the 2003 $40,000 Metro 5 Art Prize, has been shortlisted twice in the Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship by the AGNSW, was exhibited in the Archibald Salon de Refuses in 2000 and 2001, and his work toured nationally in the same years in the Doug Moran Portrait Award. Steve had 2 works selected as “finalist” in the 2006 Doug Moran National Portrait Prize, this is the first time in the history of the Moran Prize that an artist has had 2 works selected as “finalists” ! 

 

Steve Lopes trained at Sydney’s College of Fine Art and in 1998 returned from two years’ study in London where he was twice named in the top young artists under 30 in Britain by the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, exhibiting at the Mall Galleries.

 

 

 

 

 

Steve Lopes

 

Artist Background   

 

Born in Sydney, Australia, 27.5.71

 

2004 & 05          Private study with Peter Howson, Glasgow

1998                  The London Print Studio, UK (lived and worked in London 1997-98)

1991                   New York Art Students League, USA

1988-91                         Bachelor of Arts in Fine Arts,

                           University of New South Wales, Sydney

 

Solo Exhibitions

 

2007                    Pollock Gallery, Melbourne

     ‘Ex Nihilo’ Michael Carr Gallery, Sydney

2006                   ‘Bundanon Paintings’, Harrison Galleries, Sydney

                           ‘Visitations’, Pollock Gallery, Melbourne

                           ‘Silver Valley’, Gallery 482, Brisbane

2005                   ‘Passage’, Brian Moore Gallery, Sydney

                           ‘Here or There’, Pollock Gallery, Melbourne

2004                   ‘Elemental Man’, Gallery 482, Brisbane

                           ‘Ambergris’, Brian Moore Gallery, Sydney

2003                   ‘Regeneration’, Pollock Gallery, Melbourne

2002                   ‘Introduced Species’, Gallery 482, Brisbane

2000                   ‘The Arrivals’, Gallery Savah, Sydney  

1996                   ‘Access’, Toast II Contemporary Art Gallery, Sydney

 

Selected Exhibitions & Awards

 

2007                   Kilgour Figurative Art Prize finalist, Newcastle Regional Gallery

2007                   Conrad Jupiters Art Prize finalist, Gold Coast City Art Gallery

2007                   Painting 2007, group show, John Gordon Gallery, Coffs Harbour NSW

2006                   Bundanon Residency, Arthur Boyd Studios, Bundanon, NSW

2006                   Doug Moran finalist (two works selected), National Tour

2006 & 04          Kedumba Invitational Drawing Award, finalist

2005                  London Art Fair, Battersea, Farmillo Fiumano Gallery, London

2005                  ‘Art on Paper’, Hazelhurst Art Award, finalist

2004, 01 & 00    Archibald Salon de Refuses, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney

2004                 ‘Arte di Ritorno’, Berio Gallery, Genoa, Italy

2003                  Metro 5 Art Prize finalist, Metro 5 gallery, Melbourne

                          Shirley Hannan National Portrait Prize finalist, Bega Regional Art Gallery

                          SCEGGS Art Show, Sydney

                          Brian Moore Memorial Exhibition, Sydney

2002                   ‘Small Gems’, Metro 5 gallery, Melbourne

                          Brian Moore Gallery, ‘Naked’ & ‘Gallery Artists Exhibition’, Sydney

                          Jacaranda Drawing Prize finalist, Grafton Art Gallery

                          Waverly City Art Award finalist, Sydney

2004, 03, 02, 01    Hills Grammar Award finalist, Kenthurst, Sydney

2002, 01 & 99   Mosman Art Award finalist, Sydney

2001                 Alice Art Prize finalist, The Araluen Centre, Alice Springs 

                         Conrad Jupiters Art Prize finalist, Gold Coast City Art Gallery

2001 & 2000     AGNSW Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship finalist

2000                 Doug Moran Portrait Prize finalist, National Tour

                         Lloyd Rees Youth Art Award finalist, Atrium Gallery, ABC Centre

                         Shell National Print Awards finalist, Fremantle, WA

1999                 Alice Bale Awards finalist, Glen Eira Gallery, Caulfield, Melbourne

1999, 01 & 03   Carnivale Arts Festival, Artists on Norton, Sydney, first prizes

1998               Royal Institute of Oil Painters, Mall Galleries, London

1997               Royal Institute of Oil Painters, Young Artist Award,

                             Mall Galleries, London

1997                 Sothebys Art Auction, New York, drawings

1996               ‘Access’, Toast II Contemporary Art Gallery, Sydney

1995               Orange Regional Gallery, NSW                        

1991               University of New South Wales, College of Fine Arts Graduates Exhibition

 

Collections

 

National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; BHP Billiton, Art Collection Australia; Bundanon Collection; New South Wales State Library, Sydney; University of  Wollongong Art Collection; The University of Melbourne Library; Time Warner, New York; Rolls Royce, London; British Biotech, London; Psion Communications, London; Cable & Wireless, UK;  Private collections in Australia, UK, Italy and USA

 

Publications

 

Jill Stowell, Kilgour’s Debut, Newcastle Herald, December 16, 2006

Alison Harper, Art Market News, The Australian Art Market Report, Issue 16, Winter 2005

Alexandra Wilcox, The art of making money out of art, (listed as top 10 investment artist) The Herald Sun,

  6 March 2005, p6

John McDonald, In love with Archibald, The Financial Review, 1 April 2004

Patricia Anderson, Faces in the crowd, The Weekend Australian, April 10 2004

Paul Flynn, Passage catalogue, 22 pages, July 2005

Valerie Lawson, A Judge of Character, The Sydney Morning Herald, 13-14 March 2004

Dominique Angeloro, Critic's Picks, The Sydney Morning Herald, 12 March 2004

Alice McCormick, Tiny Paper Walls, The Australian Art Market Report, Issue 11, Autumn 2004

The Australian  Art Market Report, front cover image, Issue 10 Summer  2004

Phil Brown, Burning Passion, Brisbane News, July 15 2004

Geoff Elliott, Marketwatch, The Australian, 3 March 2004, p25

Andrew Taylor, Spotlight Review, The Sydney Morning Herald, 23 Feb 2005, p11

Tom Gilling , Ambergris, Paintings of Steve Lopes, The Artisan Press, 62 page book, 2004

International Artist magazine, figure painting special, page 84 2004

The Australian Art Market Report, front cover image, Summer Issue, Dec 2003

The Age, News Section, May 25, 2002

Artist’s Palette magazine, 10-page feature article, July 2000

Joyce Morgan, Drawn Hung and Quartered, Sydney Morning Herald, 3-page Summer Times artist profile,

  January 5, 2000

Sebastian Smee, Sydney Morning Herald, Metro (review) feature, April 5, 1996

Angus Fontaine, Daily Telegraph, Arts profile piece, March 28, 1996