Stephen Appleby-Barr | Night Garden

STEPHEN APPLEBY-BARR

NIGHT GARDEN

April 6th – May 4th, 2024

Stephen Appleby-Barr’s upcoming exhibition at Nicholas Metivier Gallery, NightGarden,features new paintings including works completed for his solo museum exhibition at Canada House Gallery in London, England, last fall. In 2023, Appleby-Barr also had his frst survey museum exhibition in the US at Grinnell College Museum of Art, Iowa.

Living and working in London since 2017, Stephen Appleby-Barr routinely visits some of Europe’s most esteemed museums including the Courtauld Gallery, the National Gallery and the Royal Academy of Arts in London as well as the Prado Museum in Madrid. He surrounds himself with paintings by Old Masters such as Pieter Bruegel, El Greco and Diego Velázquez regularly so that their works remain “stamped all over [his] conscience” while in the studio.

The paintings in NightGardenare rendered in a grisaille technique, paying homage to Brueghel’s painting ChristandtheWomanTakeninAdultery , from the Courtauld’s collection. In recent years, an integral part of ApplebyBarr's creative process has been to create sculptures from clay and wire to help visualise his fantastical characters in three-dimensional spaces. Grisaille, historically used by artists to imitate sculpture in paint, is an optimal technique to work in while referencing his sculptural worlds.

In an eforttogetmyselfclosertothephysicalactofdrawinginmy paintings,IbegancuttinguppiecesofsomeoldlinencurtainsthatIhad previouslybeenusingtocleanofmybrushes.Iwouldcutstripsofthe linenandrollitintotightcylindersofvaryingthickness.ThenIwoulduse thosetomixthepaintonthepaletteandapplyit.Notunlikeanoilpastel onlyIhadcontrolovertheamountofpaintinaction.Theefect was immediateforme.Marksbecamepossiblethathadn’tbeenbefore.There wasasuddenanddirectconnectiontothewayIthoughtindrawingthat was nowaccessiblewithpaint. -

18 x 16 in.

$ 14,000.00

70 3/4 x 59 in SOLD

20 x 24 in.

$ 18,000.00

70 3/4 x 47 1/4 in.

$ 32,000.00

70 3/4 x 47 1/4

$ 32,000.00

70 3/4 x 47 1/4 in.

$ 32,000.00

70 3/4 x 59 in.

$ 42,000.00

70 3/4

$ 42,000.00

36 x 30 in.

$ 26,000.00

24 x 20 in.

$ 18,000.00

Stephen Appleby-Barr’s fantasy-flled artistic practice brings together infuences from the history of art and literature, his European travels, and his community of friends who gather around his studio. His work draws inspiration from a parade of sources ranging from Florentine Renaissance architecture, Dutch still-life painting, Spanish Court portraiture, and stage and costume design. Even the smallest of objects in ApplebyBarr’s works from tiny clay fgurines and tea sets to piled-up espresso cups and cloves of garlic are conjurers of inquiry. In preparation for his paintings, Appleby-Barr constructs small sculptures and architectural maquettes to position his characters in other-worldly three-dimensional space. However, he emphasises that he does not seek to represent an “other world;” rather, he shines a light on the imperceptible worlds concealed within ours.

Born in 1981 in Toronto, Stephen Appleby-Barr is currently based in London, England. His work has been exhibited and collected in Canada, the United States and Europe. ApplebyBarr’s remarkable facility extends to printmaking. He has created several etchings printed with world-renowned Master Printer, Gregory Burnet of Burnet Editions, and published by Nicholas Metivier Gallery. In 2023, a solo exhibition of work by Stephen Appleby-Barr was presented at the Canada House Gallery in London, UK. Running concurrently, Appleby-Barr’s Correspondence, curated by Daniel Strong at the Grinnell College Museum of Art in Iowa marked the artist’s frst major institutional exhibition in the United States.