Steve Joy

Steve JoySteve JoySteve Joy

Steve Joy

Steve JoySteve JoySteve Joy
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2020 - 2023

Continues to exhibit in Omaha and joins the Minima Gallery in Mykonos Greece. In 2023 visits the island of Gan on Addu Atoll, the southernmost group of islands in the Maldives, where Steve was based in the Royal Air Force in 1972-73. The visit is of great importance.  

Steve makes a return visit to the island of Gan, where he decided to become an artist whilst stationed there in the early 1970s. 

    2019 - 2020

    Starts working in a studio in Orient, Long Island, New York. From 2020 spends the winters working in Berlin and in Orient during the Spring and Summer.

    2018

    Has a museum survey at the Sioux City Art Centre in Iowa. The exhibition 'Icons, Elizabethans and Elegies to a Mad King' includes work from the past ten years. 

    2017

    Galerie Erich Storrer, Zurich, publishes Steve Joy, 2017, with additional illustrations.


    Returns to England to spend an extended period of time working in his windswept studio overlooking the sea on the Rame Peninsula in an area near Plymouth referred to as 'The Forgotten Corner'. Begins the 'Elegies to a Mad King' series.

    2009 -2014

    Continues to exhibit throughout United States and Europe including major museum surveys in Norway and one-person gallery exhibitions in England, Switzerland and Scandinavia.

    Works between a studio on the Rame Peninsula Cornwall, England during the summers and in Omaha, Nebraska during winters.

    2008

    Retrospective exhibition at the Joslyn Museum, Omaha, Nebraska, USA.

    Uncreated Light Monograph published by Prestel, Munich, author David Carrier.  

    2006

    Rents a cottage on the edge of Dartmoor, England. Begins the series entitled The Temple Of Athene.

    2005

    Rents a studio in Norway — a cottage by the Fjord between Oslo and Bergen, alongside the Hole Art Centre at Naess summer and autumn.

    Dartmoor (in the fog), 2006
    Studio in Norway, summer 2005

    Studio in Norway, summer 2005

    2002 - 2008

    Continues (from 2003) to be based in Omaha, but spends most summers back in his hometown in England, at the family home, on the edge of Dartmoor, Devon.

    2002

    Begins to travel extensively in Mexico (Yucatán), India and Morocco. In Morocco travels over the Atlas Mountains to Erfoud at the edge of the Sahara.

    Revisits the Indian Ocean islands of the Maldives and earlier places of inspiration and abode. Journeys to the southern Addu Atoll, site of the Royal Air Force base in 1971.

    Continues to work in New York. Also spends time working in the Old Market district of Omaha.

    1999

    Begins to work in New York again, after leaving the Bemis. Spends summers back in Umbria, Italy.

    1998

    Becomes curator at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts in Omaha, Nebraska and moves more permanently to the United States later that year.

    1995

    Accepts a professorship at the Bergen National Academy of Arts in Bergen, Norway. Commutes between Norway and Spain. First museum shows in Norway — in Haugesund and later Bergen.

    1994

    Takes a new studio in Barcelona, close to the university and joins the Ferran Cano Gallery in Palma de Mallorca and Barcelona. Friendship with Sean Scully deepens — Scully lives across the hallway in Barcelona.

    Aït-Benhaddou, Atlas Mountains, Morocco, 2002

    Aït-Benhaddou, Atlas Mountains, Morocco, 2002

    Steve Joy, Minorca, Spain, 1992

    Steve Joy, Minorca, Spain, 1992

    1992

    Becomes professor of painting at the École des Beaux-Arts de Caen in France and moves to a studio in the village of Thury-Harcourt (Suisse Normande). Has first museum show in France in the City Museum of Caen.

    1990

    Moves to New York City and begins to work in a studio on Bond Street. Joins the Ruth Siegel Gallery on West 57th Street. Spends the summers in a new studio in Barcelona, close to the port in the Gothic Quarter.

    1989

    Moves to the Balearic Island of Minorca, taking a studio in the capital (Mahón) at first, and then later in a disused convent in the middle of the island.

    1987

    Spends winters in the medieval Belgian city of Bruges. Joins the ‘tleerhuys Galerij and works in a studio in a sixteenth-century coaching house close to the Groeningemuseum. This, and the proximity of Antwerp and Ghent, afford access to the great masters of Flemish painting. Divides time between Bruges (winters) and Umbria, Italy (summers) for the coming years.

    1986

    Packs all belongings in an old car and drives to Italy. Finds a wonderful studio in Umbria. At first the studio is in a medieval castle not far from Assisi, Castello di Polgeto, and then later moves nearby to a studio attached to an eleventh-century church. Begins an extensive study of pre-Renaissance and Renaissance painting. Represents Norway at the Stockholm International Art Fair.

    With a BMW motorcycle and sidecar, Minorca, Spain, 1989

    With a BMW motorcycle and sidecar, Minorca, Spain, 1989

    Steve Joy in Polgeto, Italy, 1986

    Steve Joy in Polgeto, Italy, 1986

    Outside the Stroud Studio, Cotswolds, England, 1982

    Outside the Stroud Studio, Cotswolds, England, 1982

    Royal Air Force College for Chaplains, Andover, England, 1973

    Royal Air Force College for Chaplains, Andover, England, 1973

    1983

    Moves to Norway, at first to a small cottage at Tysnes, a Viking burial ground. Later moves to Oslo, marries Elenor Martinsen and rents a studio in the center of Oslo. Becomes a professor at The Trondheim Academy of Fine Art

    1982

    Moves to Kyoto, Japan to study calligraphy and Japanese culture at Kyoto University of Arts. Reads and is very influenced by the writings of Yukio Mishima

    1981

    Takes some time to bicycle through Spain alone, after graduating and discovers the poetry of Pablo Neruda, Antonio Machado, and, especially, the work of the Peruvian poet César Vallejo, which will guide Joy throughout his life.

    Takes a painting fellowship at Cheltenham College, England in the autumn. This provides the first real studio in a converted museum in the town of Stroud, in the Cotswolds. Works on a series of monolith, monochrome paintings, based on the Duino Elegies by Rainer Maria Rilke. These would be exhibited at the Serpentine Gallery in London and would be Joy’s first museum exhibition.

    1980

    Begins a master’s program at Chelsea College of Arts in London, graduating in 1981 with an M.F.A. in painting. Meets, and is profoundly influenced by the painters Ian Stephenson and Bob Law. It is particularly Bob Law’s vision of painting which motivates Joy in the directions his work will take.

    1978

    Has first important solo exhibition at the Riverside Studios in London. Bicycles from Holland to Norway with two fellow painters from Exeter College in the summer

    1975 - 1979

    Begins art education at Cardiff College of Art in Wales, moving to Exeter to complete a B.A. (Hons) program in fine arts. Begins by studying sculpture.

    1973

    Visits the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, exposing Joy to the paintings and philosophy of Barnett Newman. It is here that the idea of becoming an abstract painter takes shape. Begins to study comparative religions at the Royal Air Force College for Chaplains, in Andover, England. Thinks of becoming an ordained minister at this point.

    1971

    Joins the bicycle racing team for the Royal Air Force, and represents the service throughout Europe, as well as at the Commonwealth Games in New Zealand, entertaining the idea of becoming a professional.

    1968

    Joins the Royal Air Force and travels extensively through the Far East, the Middle East and Mediterranean including two years on a small tropical coral island at the southernmost Atoll of the Maldives in the Indian Ocean. Discovers The Masterpiece, a book by Emil Zola about Paul Cezanne, which installs the notion of eventually becoming an artist and painter.

    1954

    Moves with his family to a small village near the sea in Cornwall, called St Anthony and moved shortly thereafter to nearby St John

    1952

     Steve Joy is born on October 7 in the city of Plymouth, England to Dorothy Joan and Leonard Joy 

    Steve with his father, 1953, Plymouth

    Steve with his father, 1953, Plymouth

    Steve's mother, 1953, Plymouth

    Steve's mother, 1953, Plymouth

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