Steven Whitewood at The Alan

Steve Whitewood is a painter working predominantly with a combination of oil and acrylic paint.

Whitewood has dealt with a variety of subjects throughout his practice including Brutalist architecture and the mundanities of lockdown however, more recently the contextual theme that runs through his work is the art world and the superficial nature of events such as private views and art fairs.

Through the medium of paint, he analyses this notion and presents the stereotypical figures that you may see at these events within a formalist, abstract setting.

Whitewood places a focus on monochromatic colour combinations that are inspired by architecture and interior design from previous themes; as well as the structure of his figures which he constructs with large, loose brush strokes to abstract the figures.

This turns them into characters navigating the space and shines a light on the people over the art that would usually be surrounding them, which urges the viewer to examine how they present themselves within the art world.

"I began going to private views and art fairs, which I found very awkward and uncomfortable, as the idea of networking has always been a struggle for me and I felt that especially at a certain level, people try very hard to portray themselves in the most cultured and interesting way possible. I've even found myself doing this at times. I started to paint figures at these types of events not only to poke fun the connotations say an art fair of private view, but so that other artists could resonate with what I was feeling, as I knew that many of my peers have felt the same"