First up, I have no formal art training. I used the art room at school as somewhere to hide from maths and physics. Prior to that, at about 10 or 11 years old I got into my first school fight over a painting. We were put into pairs in an English class and had to illustrate a part of a book. I forget which book it was but it was probably The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. We always seemed to be reading that. I suggested that we just blob a load of paint on the paper and a picture would emerge. It didn't. Just a brown poster paint type stain. This didn't please my painting partner at all. I don't know how I had got that idea in my head but I still stand by it!
At some point in the 90's and did a BTEC in graphic design for two years. It was as part of these studies [photography A level] that it was suggested that I write an essay on the effects of abstract art on photography [or words to that effect]. It was then that I started seeing abstract art everywhere and started photographing bits of decaying walls. The course ended and I decided that I was likely to be the oldest junior graphic designer in town if I got a job as one so I carried on working in the record shop I had been working in whilst studying eventually drifted into an office job for 15 years until I was made redundant,
So I spent a few months doing an online MOMA course, which taught me a little about paint and various artists techniques but the only way to learn was to get stuck in, produce some work and put it somewhere where someone could see it.
And here we are...
Oh, and I also, quite randomly, wrote a children's book "Digby The Big Bee".
Artists statements eh?
I have photographed bits of decaying wall since that graphic design course in the 90s so it seems natural for me to reproduce those as paintings or at least the inspiration for them.
I am pursuing a kind of naive abstraction. An urban minimalism. Grids of text, texture, and redaction. A palimpsest of acrylic, collage, printed ephemera and sometimes oils and cold wax. An evocation of wabi-sabi and ghost signs.
The brain is a great economiser of resources and is happy to be misdirected. Unless you are thinking of decorating chances are you won't notice marks on your walls. The photograph demonstrates that abstraction did not emerge from representation but the other way round. Chance prevailed before codification. I nicked that from somewhere but I can't remember where!
Steve Wilde [October 2019]
At some point in the 90's and did a BTEC in graphic design for two years. It was as part of these studies [photography A level] that it was suggested that I write an essay on the effects of abstract art on photography [or words to that effect]. It was then that I started seeing abstract art everywhere and started photographing bits of decaying walls. The course ended and I decided that I was likely to be the oldest junior graphic designer in town if I got a job as one so I carried on working in the record shop I had been working in whilst studying eventually drifted into an office job for 15 years until I was made redundant,
So I spent a few months doing an online MOMA course, which taught me a little about paint and various artists techniques but the only way to learn was to get stuck in, produce some work and put it somewhere where someone could see it.
And here we are...
Oh, and I also, quite randomly, wrote a children's book "Digby The Big Bee".
Artists statements eh?
I have photographed bits of decaying wall since that graphic design course in the 90s so it seems natural for me to reproduce those as paintings or at least the inspiration for them.
I am pursuing a kind of naive abstraction. An urban minimalism. Grids of text, texture, and redaction. A palimpsest of acrylic, collage, printed ephemera and sometimes oils and cold wax. An evocation of wabi-sabi and ghost signs.
The brain is a great economiser of resources and is happy to be misdirected. Unless you are thinking of decorating chances are you won't notice marks on your walls. The photograph demonstrates that abstraction did not emerge from representation but the other way round. Chance prevailed before codification. I nicked that from somewhere but I can't remember where!
Steve Wilde [October 2019]
Forthcoming Exhibitions
Solo Show, Brixton Library, TBC 2021 [Covid allowing]
Past Exhibitions
Hang Your Pixels Even Hype, Amsterdam 2006
Four untitled images; Photocopy Club, Beach Gallery, London 2011
Untamed Mercedes-Benz, Paris 2013
Kraftwerk Have Left The Building, Bleeding London, City Hall, London 2015
Abstract Water, Breathing London, Embassy of Croatia, London 2017
In the Studio: Art by MoMA’s Online Learning Community (group slideshow) - MoMA, New York 2018
London Calling: Photocopy Club, V3 Gallery, London 2018
Brixton Summer Art Show 2019, Brixton Library, 2019
Steve Wilde: Random Features [Solo Show] - The Great North Wood, London Oct - Nov 2019
Outsider Arts Festival, Deal Castle, Kent - Nov 2019
Townhouse Open, Spitalfields, London, September - October 2020
Brixton Winter Art Show 2019, Brixton Library, December 2020 [Online due to Covid restrictions]
Publications
Digitalia Blurb Books 2008
Random Features Blurb Books 2010
Mostly Devoid of Colour Blurb Books 2015
Digby The Big Bee Blurb Books 2017
Artefacts Blurb Books 2017
Books Available From Blurb
My Photographs have been featured by the following:
The Londonist
Schmap.com
Radiolab WNYC
Eyes of the World Media Group
Travel Professional Magazine
Liquid Luck Productions
Whitechapel AM
Antiquarian Horological Society
European Graduate School
GPSmyCity
Cent Magazine
Castlestories.net
India Boating
French Property Centre
Trinity College, Dublin
Solo Show, Brixton Library, TBC 2021 [Covid allowing]
Past Exhibitions
Hang Your Pixels Even Hype, Amsterdam 2006
Four untitled images; Photocopy Club, Beach Gallery, London 2011
Untamed Mercedes-Benz, Paris 2013
Kraftwerk Have Left The Building, Bleeding London, City Hall, London 2015
Abstract Water, Breathing London, Embassy of Croatia, London 2017
In the Studio: Art by MoMA’s Online Learning Community (group slideshow) - MoMA, New York 2018
London Calling: Photocopy Club, V3 Gallery, London 2018
Brixton Summer Art Show 2019, Brixton Library, 2019
Steve Wilde: Random Features [Solo Show] - The Great North Wood, London Oct - Nov 2019
Outsider Arts Festival, Deal Castle, Kent - Nov 2019
Townhouse Open, Spitalfields, London, September - October 2020
Brixton Winter Art Show 2019, Brixton Library, December 2020 [Online due to Covid restrictions]
Publications
Digitalia Blurb Books 2008
Random Features Blurb Books 2010
Mostly Devoid of Colour Blurb Books 2015
Digby The Big Bee Blurb Books 2017
Artefacts Blurb Books 2017
Books Available From Blurb
My Photographs have been featured by the following:
The Londonist
Schmap.com
Radiolab WNYC
Eyes of the World Media Group
Travel Professional Magazine
Liquid Luck Productions
Whitechapel AM
Antiquarian Horological Society
European Graduate School
GPSmyCity
Cent Magazine
Castlestories.net
India Boating
French Property Centre
Trinity College, Dublin