Steve Joyce is based in Suffolk.
Steve Joyce is an artist and lecturer working a portfolio career in the creative industries, and distributes his time between personal art practice, commissions, teaching and gallery work.
He is a multi-media artist who produces a multifaceted array of works, reflecting diverse interests, thinking and observations. Working mainly within painting, drawing, printmaking, and collage he produces individual pieces and also installations. The materials and techniques vary, but he frequently incorporates the use of appropriated images and materials. The work mostly explores the discrepancies between real objects or experiences, images, and expected interpretations.
As an artist he works independently and also works collaboratively on projects with other artists. These projects include site-specific work and other exhibition projects some of which are included in the projects section.
Since completing his Masters Degree at the Colchester Institute he has been developing his art practice and has recently undertaken artist's residencies at
the University of Suffolk and at Asylum Studios. His background includes working in artist run galleries and gallery education roles, which began while studying for his BA Fine Art
Degree at Norwich University of the Arts, leading on to fulltime lecturing work in further education. He still teaches part-time though his focus is now on practicing as an artist.
Over the years he has also worked as a picture frame maker, lived in Canada for while and before that he was a self-employed designer-maker working in interior design and construction.
I am an artist who makes pictures often using cutting and collage techniques to make collages, paintings, drawings and prints. I appropriate found images, obscuring or allegorising the original significations to create work that will divert or suspend closure. In a technological world where we are inundated with images, I seek to impede that deluge and prolong that moment of uncertainty and openness, giving time to reconsider significations and notice different associations and meanings.
My current work questions the nature of things, images and experiences; the significance, the meaning, connotations and expectations. I am interested in the unreliability or inconsistency of images and meaning, and seek to create work that either confirms or contradicts its form or appearance. I look for strands of discontinuity in found images and reinvent them. Generally the focus is on the everyday and how we might or might not expect to find things. I am always looking for a new ways to re-present the obvious, the ubiquitous, the curious or the mundane.
Much of my research follows an interest in language structure as I have a fascination for the way signification occurs, though I am not primarily interested in fixed meanings. This interest lies mainly in creating plausible images that might divert or distract closure, prolonging a moment of hesitation in reading the work and activating the role of the viewer. Drawing has always continued to be a facet of my practice which both grounds and informs onging project development, but recently the role of drawing has has expanded and is now used in different ways. Currently, I am in the process of returning to painting where new approaches are emerging and ideas for new projects are forming.
Exhibitions
2020 Out of the Ordinary, solo exhibition, 142 Hamilton Road artsapce, Felixstowe
2019 4th Mini Print Touring exhibition, at Artspace, Woodbridge
2019 Seasons, group exhibition at The Frame Workshop & Gallery, Ipswich
2018 Mini Print Touring Exhibition, Garage Gallery, Aldeburgh and other venues
2018 Art At The Alter, Group show, Ipswich Tourist Information Centre
2018 Not only but also, Solo Exhibition, SubArts, Ipswich
2018 Out of the Ordinary, Solo Exhibition, Asylum Studios, Rendlesham, Suffolk
2017 Winter Exhibition, The Frame Workshop & Gallery, Ipswich
2017 Jazz Art Exhibition, Subterranean Arts Gallery, Ipswich
2017 Ipswich Open Exhibition, IAS, Ipswich Art School Gallery, Ipswich
2017 Simulacrum, Solo Exhibition, The Waterfront Gallery, University Of Suffolk, Ipswich
2016 Open Call Exhibition, Ipswich Art School Gallery, Ipswich
2016 Open Exhibition, CAS, The Minories, Colchester
2016 Discarded Made Beautiful 2 Exhibition, The Frame Workshop & Gallery, Ipswich
2016 Open exhibition, The Sentinel Gallery, Wivenhoe, Essex
2016 Open Exhibition, IAS, The Waterfront Foyer, UCS, Ipswich
2015 Smiths Row Open, Bury St Edmonds
2015 Art for Business, group exhibition at Kerseys Solicitors, Ipswich
2014 Gatherings, Group Show, Freudian Sheep Gallery, Ipswich
2014 Secrets, Postmasters Group Exhibition, The Minories, Colchester
2014 Creative Colony, Broomfield Road, Chelmsford
2013 Art Ahoy! 2013, The Foyer, UCS Waterfront Building, Neptune Quay, Ipswich
2013 Four Artists, group show at The Frame Workshop & Gallery, Ipswich
2013 Suffolk Showcase, Smiths Row, Bury St. Edmonds
2013 Atrium 2013, The Foyer, UCS Waterfront Building, Neptune Quay, Ipswich
2012 Masters at the Minories, The Minories Art Gallery, Colchester
2011 Precursor, Firstsite, Colchester
2011 Suffolk Showcase, Smiths Row, Bury St. Edmonds
2011 Discarded Made Beautiful, exhibition at The Frame Workshop & Gallery, Ipswich
2010 Prime, Benham Gallery, Cuckoo Farm Studios, Colchester
2010 Arts Trail, Rivermead Gallery, APU, Chelmsford
2009 Shelf Life, open exhibition, Key Arts, Ipswich
2007 He Opened His Eyes - collaborative book project
2007 Play, St Marys-at-the-Quay, Ipswich
2007 Triptych, Open Exhibition, KeyArts, st. Mary's-at-the-Quay, Ipswich
2007 Open Show, Eyestorm, Ipswich
2007 Art of The Book, Wolsey Gallery, Christchurch Mansion, Ipswich
2006 Boxroom, KeyArts, Ipswich
2004 Simply Red, Open Show, Reunion Gallery, Felixstowe, Suffolk
2004 Open Gallery, Group Show, Frame Workshop & Gallery, Ipswich
2004 Blankpage exhibition, Christchurch Mansion, Ipswich
2004 Inspired by Landscape, John Stevens Fine Art, Hadleigh
2003 Our Town, open show, Wolsey Art Gallery, Ipswich
2003 A Construct of Time, Ancient House Gallery Space, Ipswich
2001 Figure, selected group show, Suffolk ACRE, Ipswich
2000 Suffolk Open Studios & Exhibitions, Wlosey Theatre, Ipswich, Suffolk
2000 Invited Artists Exhibition, Gissing Arts, Norfolk
2000 Topcroft Festival of Arts, Sculpture trail, Topcroft, Norfolk
1999 Annual Exhibition, Drayton Valley, Alberta Canada
1997 New Light on Landscape, group exhibition, Advice Arcade Gallery, Norwich
1996 Open Exhibition, Halesworth Gallery, Norfolk
1996 Conversations, Contact Gallery, Norwich
1996 Open Opportunity, Open Show, Advice Arcade Gallery, Norwich, Norfolk
1995 Mapping the Margins, Brewhouse Gallery, Taunton, Devon
1995 Graduation, Selected exhibition, King of Hearts Gallery, Norwich
1995 New Beginnings, group exhibition, St Margaret's Church, Norwich
1995 A Jolly Good Show, BA Degree show, Norwich School of Art & Design
Projects & Collaborations
2011 Precursor, Firstsite, Colchester
2010-11 Discarded Made Beautiful - collaborative exhibition project
2006-10 Play Project - group collaboration working on response to the object
2007 He Opened His Eyes - collaborative book project
2003-4 Blankpage - collaborative book project
2003 A Construct of Time - site-specific collaboration project
Qualifications and Training
2012 MA Contemporary Art & Profession Practice, Colchester Institute, Colchester
2011 QTLS, Registered Teacher Status, IFL
2008 Layouts with Indesign, short course, Central St. Martins, London
2007 Experimental Printmaking, short course, Central St. Martins, London
1999 PGCE, City College Norwich
1995 BA (Hons) Fine Art, Norwich School of Art & Design, Norwich