New Works on Paper from London (part 1)
14 August - 11 September 2015
Steve Cox
The Woman from Manchester
2015, gouache on paper, 40 x 30 cm
Steve Cox
Il Commandante
2015, pencil and gouache on paper, 30 x 40 cm
Steve Cox
Baroque Fuck
2015, pencil and gouache on paper, 30 x 40 cm
Steve Cox
The Bully Boy
2015, pencil and gouache on paper, 40 x 30 cm
Steve Cox
Big Scary Motherfucking Zombie #6
2015, pencil and gouache on paper, 60 x 45 cm
Steve Cox
Big Scary Motherfucking Zombie #8
2015, pencil and gouache on paper, 60 x 45 cm
Steve Cox
Big Scary Motherfucking Zombie #7
2015, pencil and gouache on paper, 60 x 45 cm
Steve Cox
Big Scary Motherfucking Zombie #9
2015, pencil and gouache on paper, 60 x 45 cm
Steve Cox
Monument for Those who Broke Free
2015, pencil and gouache on paper, 29 x 21 cm
Steve Cox
Storming the Citadel
2015, pencil and gouache on paper, 29 x 21 cm
Steve Cox
Strange and Exotic Fauna
2015, pencil and gouache on paper, 29 x 21 cm
Born Melbourne, 1958
Currently lives and works in London
Diploma in Fine Art (Painting), Victorian College of the Arts, 1981
Master of Fine Art (Painting), Deakin University, 1997
Description of work
Cox has consistently explored the dark underbelly of human existence. His early work dealt with the psychology of murderers and their victims. Then followed several series of works about dance and rave culture in the late 1990s. More recently, he has staged two exhibitions based upon Dante's Inferno.
His work has a strong drawing-base which informs all of his output. Early figurative paintings were made with charcoal drawings tinted with coloured glazes. For the past decade he has concentrated on works on paper and he is regarded as a foremost practitioner in contemporary watercolour.
Awards/Exhibitions
Cox has held over thirty-five solo exhibitions since 1982, and been included in over forty group exhibitions.
These include:
1983, Keith & Elisabeth Murdoch Travelling Fellowship, Victorian College of the Arts
1983, 'Perspecta', Art Gallery of NSW
1987, 'Young Australians', National Gallery of Vic
1993, Moet & Chandon Fellowship, All States
1994, Sulman Prize, Art Gallery of NSW
1994, Dobell Prize, Art Gallery of NSW
2003, 'It's Hard to be Human', The Ian Potter Gallery, University of Melbourne
2003, Youth Prints, Kunstmuseum, Horsens, Denmark
2003, Youth Prints, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
2003, Kunst for Unge, Groeningemuseum, Brugge, Belgium
2004, MPRG Drawing Prize, Mornington Peninsular Art Gallery
2005, 'Moist: Australian Watercolours', National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
2005, 'This & Other Worlds: Contemporary Australian Drawing', National Gallery of Victoria
2007, Arthur Guy Memorial Prize, Bendigo Art Gallery
2008, 'True Crime: Murder and Misdemeanor in Australian Art', Geelong Gallery
2010, Fletcher Jones Prize, Geelong Gallery
2012, 'Controversy: The Power of Art', Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery
2012, MPRG Drawing Prize, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery
Collections
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
National Gallery of Victoria
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington, New Zealand
Ian Potter Foundation, Melbourne
Victorian College of the Arts
Latrobe University
Benalla Art Gallery
Geelong Art Gallery
Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery
ArtBank, Sydney
Whitefriars College, Melbourne
Hirsh Family, Melbourne
Professor Paul Wilson, Queensland
Kenneth Anger, Los Angeles, U.S.A.
Ghedini Family, Besozzo, Northern Italy
The Estate of Francis Bacon, London
The Estate of Reggie Kray, London
Selected bibliography
Perspecta catalogue, Art Gallery of NSW 1983
Art & Australia, Vol 21 No.1 Spring 1983
Young Australians Catalogue, National Gallery of Victoria 1987
Art & Australia, Vol 25 No. 3 autumn, 1988
Interior Design No. 18 1989
Dury, Neville: New Art Three, Craftsman House 1989
Dury, Neville: Images in Contemporary Australian Painting, Craftsman House 1992
Sonia Payes: Untitled: Portraits of Australian Artists, 2007
Catalano, Gary: 'Cox Jettisons Obsession to Find Compassion', The Age, 24.5.89
Millar, Ronald: 'The Painful Side of Art', The Herald, May 1989
Rooney, Robert: 'The Misadventures of Cap'n Kirk', Weekend Australian, 20.5.89
Rooney Robert: 'Boom Goes the Art of Parenthood', The Australian, 15.8.92
Rooney, Robert: 'Face to Face With Childhood's Darkest Side', The Australian, 29.1.94
Shingleton, Colin: 'Child's Play', Art Monthly, April 1995
Taylor, Roger: 'Contemporary Voices: Steven Cox', Asian Art News, Vol 5, No.3 May/June 1995
Neylon, John: 'Pevensey Rules', The Adelaide Review, July 1997
Dutkiewicz, Adam: 'Another Walk on the Wild Side', The Advertiser (Adelaide), 4.6.97
Timms, Peter: 'Sex, Violence and All Things Underneath', The Age, 10.3.99
Timms, Peter: 'Method in the Madness', The Age, 12.4.00
Artist Profile, Issue 11, 2010
Crawford, Ashley, 'Abandon (Almost) All Hope: The Nine Circles of Hell with Steve Cox', Vault: New Art & Culture, issue 3, April, 2013.
