Grant Stevens is an Australian artist currently based in Sydney. Working mainly with video, photography, sculpture, and installation, his practice explores how the verbal and non-verbal languages of popular culture interface with contemporary subjectivity. Often merging the highly personal with the bleakly generic, his works seek to understand the apathies and oxymorons plaguing the 21st Century self. His works regularly take their inspiration and reference material directly from television, movies, and the Internet, as they seek to unravel ambivalent connections between cultural clichés and lived experiences. Fascinated by quests for happiness, self-improvement, and existential meaning, Stevens’ work questions how the forms and messages of emotional capitalism are impacting contemporary experiences and expressions of selfhood.
Stevens has exhibited regularly since the early 2000’s, with numerous solo exhibitions in Australia, New Zealand, Europe, and the United States. His works have also featured in many significant curated exhibitions at publicly funded museums and contemporary art spaces including: GOMA Q: Contemporary Art from Queensland, QAGOMA, Brisbane (2015); The Wandering: Moving Images from the MCA Collection, touring exhibition, various venues (2013-14); We Used to Talk About Love, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (2013); Desire Lines, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne (2012); Life is Risk/Art is Risk, National Artists’ Self-Portrait Prize, University of Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane (2011); and The Leisure Class, the Australian Cinematheque, QAGOMA, Brisbane (2007).
Stevens’ works are held in many private collections, as well as public institutions such as: the Queensland Art Gallery|Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Artbank; the University of Queensland Art Collection, Brisbane; the Chartwell Collection, New Zealand; and the Oppenheimer Collection, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Kansas, USA.
Stevens received his PhD from the Queensland University of Technology in 2007, and is currently Deputy Head of School (Art) at UNSW Art & Design, Sydney.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023
Horizons of Happiness, Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney, AU
2020
The Forest, Sullivan + Strumpf, Sydney, AU
2018
The Mountain and The Waterfalls, Starkwhite, Auckland, NZ
You Have Within You Right Now Everything You Need To Succeed, Sullivan + Strumpf, Sydney, AU
2017
The Sun Set, Art by Accident, Murray Art Museum Albury, AU
2016
What You Seek Is Seeking You, Sullivan + Strumpf, Sydney, AU
2015
Dark Mess, Boxcopy, Brisbane, AU
2014
What We Had Was Real, City Gallery Wellington, Wellington, NZ
Hold Together, Fall Apart, Starkwhite, Auckland, NZ
Supermassive, Screen Space, Melbourne, AU
Supermassive, LA Louver, Venice, California, US
2013
Tranquility Falls, Gallery Barry Keldoulis, Angel Place, Sydney, AU
2012
Seriously, Relax, Gallery Barry Keldoulis, Sydney, AU
2010
Burst, PICA, Perth, AU
Horizons, Gallery Barry Keldoulis, Sydney, AU
2009
Wobbly, Gallery Barry Keldoulis, Sydney, AU
Fazed, Starkwhite, Auckland, AU
2008
No Bad Days, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, AU
Really Really, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne, AU
2007
Education, Education, Gallery Barry Keldoulis, Sydney, AU
Cliché and Collusion: Video Works by Grant Stevens, Museum of Art, Brigham Young University, Provo, US
Going Steady, Starkwhite, Auckland, AU
The Switch, Il Ponte Contemporanea, Rome, IT
2006
New Ideas for Cake, The Block, Brisbane, AU
Cut to the Cheese: Selected Works, Museum of Brisbane, Brisbane, AU
The Switch, Lismore Regional Gallery, Lismore, AU
2005
I Like Ike, Gallery Barry Keldoulis, Sydney, AU
When There’s Love, Metro Arts, Brisbane, AU
Like Two Ships, Kings ARI, Melbourne, AU
2004
Some Want It All, Gallery Barry Keldoulis, Sydney, AU
Dazed and Praised, Pestorius Sweeney House, Brisbane, AU
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023
2023 Annual Group Show, Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney, AU
2022-23
Living Together, Bendigo Art Gallery, Bendigo, AU
2022
Above the Canopy, Town Hall Gallery, Hawthorn Arts Centre, Hawthorn, AU
2021
Choose Happiness, curated by Serena Bentley, Murray Art Museum Albury, AU
Slow Moving Waters, curated by Nina Miall, TarraWarra Biennial 2021, TarraWarra Museum of Art, AU
This Brittle Light: Light Source Commissions, Curated by Melissa Keys, online and physical exhibitions, Buxton Contemporary, Melbourne, AU
2020
Close Encounters, Blacktown Arts Centre, Blacktown, AU
Making Art Work, Institute of Modern Art, online and physical exhibitions (Ephemeral Projects Curators: Tulleah Pearce and Nicholas Aloisio-Shearer), Brisbane, AU
Hope in the Dark, curated by Mark Feary, Gertrude Glasshouse, Melbourne, AU
Digital 3 – Retro Ed., Bergman Gallery, Rarotonga, CK
2019
Hope Dies Last: Art at the End of Optimism, curated by Mark Feary, Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne, AU
Oceans From Here, curated by Allison Holland, touring exhibition from the Australian Centre for Photography, Gosford Regional Gallery, AU
After Technology, Curated by Stella Rosa McDonald and Eleanor Zeichner, UTS Gallery, Sydney, AU
2018
Yours Internally (with Kiron Robinson), Curated by David Sequeira, Margaret Lawrence Gallery, Melbourne, AU
Prelude to Oceans From Here, curated by Allison Holland, Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney, AU
Evolver, LA Louver, Venice, US
Transboundaries: Art + Connection, QUT Art Museum, Brisbane, AU
2017
Out of the Ordinary, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, AU
2015
GOMA Q: Contemporary Queensland Art, QAGOMA, Brisbane, AU
In Motion, Starkwhite, Auckland, NZ
My Feet Would Hurt If They Still Existed, curated by Finn Marchant and Nicholas Shearer, Alaska Projects, Sydney, AU
2014
Striking Contrasts, Curated by dLux Media Arts, touring exhibition; Bathurst Regional Gallery, Hazelhurst Regional Gallery and Arts Centre, Grafton Regional Gallery, AU
The Wandering: Moving Images from the MCA Collection, touring exhibition; Cairns Regional Gallery, Artspace Mackay, Drill Hall Gallery, Australian National University, Wollongong City Gallery, AU
It’s Timely, curated by Paul Howard and Gary Carsley, Blacktown Arts Centre, Sydney, AU
2013
Bazinga!, curated by Robert Leonard, Starkwhite, Auckland, NZ
We Used to Talk About Love, curated by Natasha Bullock, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney AU
City of Hobart Art Prize, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart, AU
2012
Desire Lines, curated by Juliana Engberg, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, AU
Speak to Me, curated by Abigail Moncrieff, Experimenta 5th International Biennial of Media Art, RMIT Gallery, Melbourne, AU
Greatest Hits Volume 3, curated by Anna Zammit, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, AU
2011
National Artists’ Self-Portrait Prize, University of Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane, AU
The New Arcadia, Lismore Regional Gallery, Lismore, AU
VideoRow, The Torrence Art Museum, Los Angeles, California, US
Let the Healing Begin, curated by Robert Leonard, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, AU
2010
Big Tree Foot, J & Z Gallery, Shenzhen, CN
City of Hobart Art Prize, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart, AU
In Order Out, Anna Pappas Gallery, Melbourne, AU
2009
Speaking in Tongues, Nature Morte Berlin, DE
The more you ignore me, the closer I get, University of Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane, AU
Word, Anna Schwartz Gallery, Sydney, AU
Some Text Missing (curated by Sarah Jones), CAST, Hobart, AU
Total Nowhere Emotion Expansion (curated by Vivian Ziherl), Brisbane Festival, AU
2008
Ornament is a Crime, Gallery 1927, Los Angeles, US
The Dating Show, curated by Robert Leonard, IMA @ TCB, Brisbane, AU
Typecast, curated by Marilyn & Sons, Sophie Gannon Gallery, Melbourne, AU
neo-goth: back in black, curated by Alison Kubler, University of Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane, AU
Artisti, Il Ponte Contemporanea, Rome, IT
2007
The Leisure Class,
the Australian Cinematheque, Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, AU
Bad Brains, a little blah blah, Ho Chi Minh City, VN
New Deities: Art and the Cult of Celebrity, Devonport Regional Gallery, Devonport; Plimsoll Gallery, Hobart, AU
Anne Landa Award, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, AU
2006
Man/Trouble, Downtown Art Space, Adelaide, AU
Like Two Ships, Elastic residence, London, UK
2005
Prime 2005: New Art From Queensland, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, AU
2004
2004: Australian Culture Now, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, AU (catalogue)
Octopus 5, curated by Nicholas Chambers, Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne, AU (catalogue),
Zeitgeist, Australian Centre of Photography, Sydney, AU
Gravity, MAAP Festival, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore, SG (catalogue)
SCREENINGS AND COMMISSIONS
2020
Light Source Commissions, Buxton Contemporary, Melbourne, AU
UTS Broadway Screen Commission,
University of Technology Sydney, AU 2014
Public Art Screens, i/o/lab, Stavanger, NO
MAF Video, Melbourne Art Fair, Melbourne, AU
Video Contemporary, Sydney Contemporary, Sydney, AU
Mingling, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney, AU
2011
Kick Off, Metricon Stadium, Gold Coast, AU
Move Primary, Art In Motion, Kaldor Public Art Projects, Sydney, AU
2010
Next Wave Time Lapse, Federation Square’s Big Screen, Melbourne, AU