Stephen Ives was born in England to an Australian mother and English father, he spent the first twelve years of his life living on the outskirts of the historic town of Lewes before coming to Australia. Most of his childhood was spent in a large pile of Lego creating whatever he could imagine, if he wasn't distracted with this he was running around on the South Downs having adventures, drawing, playing with dolls, Action men, puppets, pressing wild flowers, climbing trees, crashing billycarts, stealing fruit, and making bad paper sculpture. As
a dysfunctional teenager (tautology?) he practiced drawing even more, as well as making model tanks and planes.
He completed his High School Certificate with distinction but failed to get into any fine art courses. Apart from his artistic career he has been a Chef, barista, barman, waiter, market porter, grocer, cheese hand, traveller, carpenters assistant, mudbrick maker, paste up artist in a small advertising agency and food stylists assistant.
Since rediscovering his artistic momentum in his mid twenties he has had regular private exhibitions in Melbourne. During two and a half years of travel through India and Europe his work was exhibited in London, Paris, Brussels, New York, Santa Fe and Copenhagen under the aegis of several galleries. He is currently represented by ADCO:VENUE Gallery in Copenhagen. His work has been bought by collectors in England and Germany as well as some of the foremost art collectors in Denmark including Christian Stadil (Hummel Sport), Lars Christian Brask (EFG International) and the Danske Bank.
www.adcovenue.com(European representative) www.myspace.com/cloudboyandbuddha
"Whimsy is my engine, intellect is my steering wheel..."
"The important thing for me is to have balance and harmony expressed within my work... I love paradoxes, they are wonderful things, they are the structure of the universe... When I do not understand how I created a work or where it is coming from I know it is true, this is my best work."
Stephen Ives work is about contrast and balance and the meaning within the juxtaposition, whether it is the bringing together of disparate ideas or the conjunction of objects, themes, colours or overall placement. On the surface level aesthetic and skill need to be balanced, the integrity of the structure fusing with overall feel creating strength flow and 'beauty'. The surface then has to be balanced with the content, the underlying conceptual structure supporting the roof of craftsmanship. Belief has to be suspended to enter the worlds Stephen creates, (when the audience no longer see the puppets strings they will then believe the puppet is real), the audience can then be taken on the journey the artist wishes them to experience. Of course if the journey is dull no amount of surface glitz will make it better. A good idea has to have form that is true.
The best way to describe the process by which Stephen Ives thinks and works is to use the French word bricolage (a construction made of whatever materials are at hand; something created from a variety of available things), his work is entirely immersed in this concept. Ideas are distilled from an experiential, mental, historical and cultural grab bag and constructed from a hyper Lego pile of toys, scrap, junk and purpose bought materials that fill his studio. Concepts are edited and refined, materials are collected, cut, morphed, distorted sometimes discarded and eventually brought together in an homogenous whole that is both a mental thought form and a candy apple treat.
"Stephen Ives has the ability to think out and shape scenarios which are rich on detail and in the midst of all the gruesomeness and absurdity have humorous and surprising traits too. Elements from popular culture are mixed with style and art history and sometimes you find peculiar changes in scale, which emphasise the smallness of mankind." Torben Weirup, Politiken (The Age equivalent) Denmark
"For me, art at it's best should touch me in a variety of ways and "do" a variety of things to me. First of all it should strike me subconsciously like when I fall in love. It should have that X-factor (for lack of better words) which allures you. Moreover it should be, well an Art. I like it to have that element of craftsmanship and skill, even though this is not always a must, for example when it comes to very conceptual art.
Art should also have a base idea – something which makes you think, wonder and ponder, something which makes you want to return to it again and again trying to decipher it, even though you might never accomplish this. It is very seldom that I come across art or artists that represent this whole demanding package. In this case I have found what I was looking for, and his name is Stephen Ives."
Christian Stadil (Hummel Sport)