Born 1981 in Margate, UK. Lives and works in Hong Kong.
Thorpe is known for his interior-based paintings, which are informed by a longstanding interest in psychoanalysis, sociology, folklore, symbolism and the reality of myth. His painted architectural spaces can be understood as a manifestation of the psyche arrived at through an ongoing and in-depth self-analysis of the personal and collective unconscious. The rooms are the mind. Thorpe describes this as unmapped psychological territories manifesting, and the act of painting as a process of visualizing and harnessing the internal coexistence of order and chaos.
Thorpe received his MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art in London and is currently a Professor of Painting at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). He has been the recipient of numerous prizes, including the Basil H. Alkazzi Foundation Scholarship; Saatchi’s Showdown Prize, judged by Kristine Roepstorff and Matthias Weisher; prize winner of 3 rd Ward Open Call, Brooklyn, New York; and the Royal Scottish Academy’s The Skinny Award. His work is included in prominent private and museum collections and has been featured in solo and group exhibitions around the world at venues including Saatchi Gallery, London; Copeland Gallery, London; Summerhall, Edinburgh; the Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh; and Aberdeen Art Gallery, Aberdeen, amongst others. He sits on the Selection Committee for the Basil H. Alkazzi Scholarship Award and the Ali H. Alkazzi Scholarship at the Royal College of Art, as well as the Outstanding Student Award in Hong Kong.
Visit Thorpe’s Virtual Exhibition: Space Invaders
Artist Stephen Thorpe sat down with psychiatrist Dr. Alexander Esterhuyzen to discuss the intersection between art and psychology.