Steven C. Harvey

Steven C. Harvey (born 1967) is a British visual artist. Born in Stafford, England, Harvey is best known for his series of pencil works, Vehicles.[1][2]

Life and early career

Harvey studied at Stafford College of Further Education (1985-1986) and Wimbledon School of Art (1986-1989), winning the Fielders Prize at Wimbledon for best degree show. In 1989 he was a finalist of the Winsor and Newton Young Painters Award Scheme and exhibited at the Mall Galleries, London. In the 1990s he participated in numerous group exhibitions in New York.[3] The Expressionist-inspired Apollo Series dates from this time, and is the first appearance of the theme of the death of the future in the artist’s work.[4] Toward the end of the decade Harvey completed the Michelangelo Series, adapting for his own purposes the pictorial vocabulary of Michelangelo’s The Last Judgment.[5]

Vehicles series

In 2006, Harvey moved to Athens, Greece, where he began work on the Vehicles series, which explores the idea of the death of the future through a surrealistic subversion of the language of science fiction imagery.[6] Works from the series have been acquired by The Contemporary Art Museum of Luxembourg (MUDAM), and exhibited in galleries and museums of art across Europe.[1][3][7] On the occasion of Harvey’s solo show at MUDAM in 2012, chief curator Clement Minighetti wrote of the Vehicles: ‘Harvey's extremely detailed drawings have a visionary force which is reminiscent of the Carceri (1745) by Giovanni Battista Piranesi and the Caprichos (1799) by Francisco de Goya, whose motto “The dream of reason produces monsters” could have been his watchword..”’ [8] In 2013, works from the Vehicles series were selected for inclusion in Phaidon Press’ global survey of contemporary drawing, Vitamin D2: New Perspectives in Drawing.[1]

Other work

In 2012 Harvey produced the series, Old Age, a sardonic look at the ageing process.[9][10] . In 2019, the artist’s show, Love Poems (2017-2018), a satire on sex, was ranked no. 4 on a list of the most interesting solo shows in Athens, Greece, for the year 2018[11] and an extreme form of romanticism[12]

Other activity

In 1998, Harvey portrayed David Bowie live on stage at London’s ICA for the live art performance piece, ‘A Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide’, devised by artists Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard. The piece took the form of an exact re-enactment of Bowie’s final concert as Ziggy Stardust at the Hammersmith Odeon in 1973.[13][14][15]

References

  1. ^ a b c Editors of Phaidon Press (2013). Vitamin D2: New Perspectives in Drawing. London: Phaidon Press. pp. 124–5, 341. ISBN 978-0-7148-6528-7.
  2. ^ Visions. An Atmosphere of Change. Germany: Hatje Kantz Verlag. 2013. pp. 140–145, 336. ISBN 978-3-7757-3611-4.
  3. ^ a b "HARVEY STEVEN C." www.adgallery.gr. Alpha Delta Gallery. Retrieved 19 July 2019.
  4. ^ Steven C. Harvey, Desirs, Autumn 2012. Luxembourg: Maison Moderne Publishing and Media. 2003. ISSN 1992-4003.
  5. ^ Psaltopoulos, Simon (2017). Exhibition Catalogue - Steven C. Harvey, Centre Culturel Jean Cocteau. France: MUDAM.
  6. ^ Goudouna, Sozita (2013). "Steven C. Harvey". NakedButSafe #4. gb big events Ltd. ISSN 1986-3918.
  7. ^ Michalarou, Efi. "ART-REVIEW:Vehicles". Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  8. ^ "Vehicles". mudam.com. The Contemporary Art Museum of Luxembourg (MUDAM). Retrieved 19 July 2019.
  9. ^ Dimokidis, Aris (14 October 2012). Το μαγικό μολύβι του Steve Harvey Πηγή [The Magic Pencil of Steve Harvey] (in Greek). Retrieved 19 July 2019.
  10. ^ Gomouza, Ioana (26 September 2012). "Ο Steven C. Harvey ρίχνει ένα σαρκαστικό βλέμμα στα γηρατειά" [Steven C. Harvey Casts a Sarcastic Glance at Old Age] (in Greek). Retrieved 19 July 2019.
  11. ^ Tzanetoulakou, Faye (1 March 2019). Εικαστική Ανασκόπηση 2018: Οι πιο ενδιαφέρουσες ατομικές εκθέσεις της χρονιάς [Visual Impression 2018: The Most Interesting Solo Shows of the Year] (in Greek). Retrieved 19 July 2019.
  12. ^ Cieminska, Nina. "Steven C. Harvey. Love Poems". Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  13. ^ Buckley, David (2005). Strange Fascination: David Bowie: The Definitive Story. London: Virgin Books. p. 479. ISBN 978-07535-1002-5.
  14. ^ Amelia, Jones; Heathfield, Adrian (2012). Perform, Repeat, Record: Live Art in History. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 428. ISBN 9781841504896.
  15. ^ Forsyth, Iain; Pollard, Jane. "A ROCK 'N' ROLL SUICIDE". Retrieved 20 July 2019.