Born 1981 in Margate, UK. Lives and works in Atlanta, GA.
Stephen 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 the 3rd Ward Open Call; and the Royal Scottish Academy’s The Skinny Award. Thorpe’s work is held in prominent private and museum collections and has been featured in solo and group exhibitions around the world at venues including Ora-Ora Gallery, Hong Kong; Denny Dimin Gallery, New York and Hong Kong; Saatchi Gallery, London; the National Museum, Gdansk, Poland; Copeland Gallery, London; Summerhall, Edinburgh; the Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh; and Aberdeen Art Gallery, Aberdeen, amongst others. He previously sat 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.
The managing director of the art appraisal and advisory firm the Winston Art Group discusses her latest buys and the best collecting advice she’s received including Stephen Thorpe and Amir H. Fallah.
At NADA, the sort of digital artworks that were so noticeably absent from other fairs were on display at booths like Denny Dimin Gallery’s, which featured computers playing Jeremy Couillard’s video game/video art piece Fuzz Dungeon on loop alongside paintings of old-school arcade consoles by Stephen Thorpe.
Stephen Thorpe’s paintings of vultures and vintage gaming cabinets chatted with Jeremy Couillard’s digital artworks, from a game of his own design to deconstructed consoles and colorful 2D works like circuit boards.
“We thought of it as a counter to the NFT world,” Robert Dimin said of the gallery’s presentation, which included a video game by Couillar with paintings of old-school video game consoles by Thorpe.
The British painter Stephen Thorpe and the American digital artist Jeremy Couillard have collaborated to create an environment suggestive of a video game arcade
Other notable galleries showing paintings include Stephen Thorpe at Denny Dimin (Booth 6.14); Mickey Lee at One Trick Pony (Booth 6.01) and a group show at The Pit (1.01)
Highlights of this edition of the contemporary and emerging art fair include an arcade-inspired booth pairing gaming stations by new media artist Jeremy Couillard with paintings by Stephen Thorpe.
The new week-long alignment starts the spring art season with a bang, including the returns of the Independent, Nada New York, Tefaf New York and the Future Art Fair
Three words to describe it: Familiar, nostalgic, awakening.
Thorpe’s works also exemplify the unbound potential of our own imaginations.
Thorpe seems most concerned with the cumulative power of ornament to conjure a syncretic, escapist reality.
Stephen Thorpe: Some might say, if it ain’t broken, why bother to fix it?
Denny Dimin Gallery offers unique glimpse into an artist’s mind during self-isolation via virtual art show “Stephen ThorpeSpace Invaders”.
Read in Home Journal
Stephen Thorpe’s Eerie Interiors Capture Isolation in Colourful Form.
Stephen Thorpe featured in A Hong Kong Art Magazine
Video produced for Stephen Thorpe’s virtual exhibition Space Invaders in 2020.
Artist Stephen Thorpe sat down with psychiatrist Dr. Alexander Esterhuyzen to discuss the intersection between art and psychology.
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