Stephen Thorpe

MA work

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Drawn from memories, visited places, and his immediate environment, my paintings are a meeting place for an array of visual imagery, at once generating a sense of familiarity and displacement. The theatrical absurdity of my work is offered as a metaphor for everyday life, full of contradictions in both the literal and abstract. Rigorous and heavy-handed underpainting gives way to a delicate and more considered approach to the canvas, a fight that results in a rich and textured surface full of chance and imperfection. In ways both overworked and busy, the technique is precise and deliberate.

Experience
Assistant to curator, Summerhall Gallery and Museum, Edinburgh, 2011–13; Curator, Blairs College and Museum, Aberdeen, 2009–11

Exhibitions
Work in Progress Show, Royal College of Art, London, 2014; Places and Spaces, Saatchi Gallery, London, 2013; Once It’s In You, It Never Goes Away, Summerhall, Edinburgh, 2012; The Poetics of Space, Whitespace, Edinburgh, 2012; RSA Open, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, 2012; The Importance of Being Original, Perlini Arte Padova, Italy, 2012; RSA Open, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, 2011; Arte Verona Fair, Perlini Arte Padova, Italy, 2011; Room To Walk, Blair’s College and Museum, Aberdeen, 2011; Venus+Demarco+ Beuys, Demarco Archives, Edinburgh, 2011; Aberdeen Artists, Aberdeen Art Gallery, Aberdeen, 2011; New Contemporaries, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, 2011; Aberdeen Artists, Aberdeen Art Gallery, Aberdeen, 2010; Gray Matter, Peacock Visual Arts, Aberdeen, 2010; Imagining Space, Blair’s College and Museum, Aberdeen, 2009