“GLASS-ARCHITECTURE-SCAPE” AIRBRUSH ON CARD 70CM X 100CM
History
“PORTRAIT JOHN” AIRBRUSH ON CARD, 60CM X 100CM
“FACADE” AIRGUN ON CANVAS 180CM X 240CM
LONDON
Airbrush work led to the use of an airgun, in which acrylic paints could be used, rather than inks. New Works were exhibited at Aberbach Fine Art in Saville Row, London W1, with two one man shows over 3 years. More exhibitions both one man and group shows followed.
ABERBACH FINE ART, LONDON
LOS ANGELES
A long stay with work and lots of fun in Los Angeles, CA, followed. There he lived with friends in a house in the Hollywood hills which, we were told, once belonged to John Wayne. This incredible time finished with a one man exhibition at Los Angeles Museum of Art on Beverly Boulevard.
“DREAMSCAPE IN DREAMLAND” 150CM X 200CM
SOHO WHARF, LONDON
The Airgun Paintings took a very long time to make and are technically quite complex. In his huge warehouse floor on the River Thames, many enormous canvases were produced, films and videos were made and massive wild parties were held.
SOHO WHARF CLINK STREET SE1
“LARGER THAN LIFE” SERIES OF SIX FIGURE PAINTINGS WITH CROWDS
SOHO WHARF filming ‘”DINNER”
BERLIN
When leaving Soho Wharf a few years later he felt that it was time to go back to West Berlin to work with an emphasis on ‘freedom and ease’.
“early eighties Berlin, anything is possible…
sleep all day, paint at night, dance till dawn”
“DSCHUNGEL” 120X200 CM
This time he used traditional painting- materials of brushes and buckets of paint. Work was fast and furious, mostly at night followed by all night dance sessions in the various clubs and venues in this amazing city with no curfew, which was then still a ‘political island’with ‘The Wall’ dividing it. A good body of work was produced in his Kreuzberg Studio, some 20 paintings, most of very large size, some of which will be shown at Pz Gallery, Penzance, in September 2019. These paintings are very different in style and appearance to previous and following work.
“LAST DANCE” 200CM X 260CM
…… “That zeitgeist also fired the imagination of another group of artists. West Berlin attracted painters such as Rainer Fetting, Helmut Middendorf, Salomé, and Bernd Zimmer. Inspired by the unconventional life in the liberal city with its low rents, the painters escaped from the narrow-mindedness of conservative provinces.
The lack of curfews (common in West German cities) and conscription (Berlin was not officially part of West Germany, but under four-power control) attracted free spirits. The hunger to experiment and create something different from concept and minimal art of the post-war era was great. The intense and dynamic painting style the young artists developed was often labelled as “neo-expressionist”, “Heftige Malerei” (“fierce painting”) or sometimes just “bad painting”, an originally critical designation some of the “bad” painters happily began using themselves.”…
Extract from THE ECONOMIST 80s Berlin, “wild youth and their ‘bad art”
ZEITGEIST
“NACHT (NIGHT)”
BACK IN LONDON
….returning to London while maintaining a painting studio in Clerkenwell, he got involved in the film industry designing sets for music videos, commercials, feature films and in television. Initially the idea was to simply support his art financially with this ‘part time’ work, but it soon took on its own momentum and he worked hard for over a decade and a half.
Sporadic shows of paintings and installations were also taking place one of these at the ‘Air Gallery’ in Roseberry Ave. London.
This was an installation show of very large paintings with a soundtrack of music by Olli Robinson and song/poetry by Bertie Berlin.
The show was called:
‘Around and Around’
Installation at Air Gallery London
BLITZ magazine article
Meanwhile he worked as designer and occasionally director on the music videos for Simple Minds, Queen, Cocteau Twins, Simply Red, Adeva, Aha, Erasure, Deacon Blue, Aztec Camera, China Crisis, Inner City and many more. Nothing could have been more fun. It was ‘the Eighties’ and music, fashion and art rocked. Soon feature films, commercials and television productions followed.
CORNWALL
A friend, who is a graphic designer, gave him an old out of date Mac with a very early version of Photoshop installed. It was ‘love’ with this new medium almost immediately. Endless image making possibilities unfolded. Apart from the occasional transgression into traditional ways of painting he has been working in this medium ever since.
WORKING IN DIGITAL MEDIA
“The creative process is in principle no different to creating in traditional media, except that it allows for overlaying, blending, distorting and morphing of shape and colour ‘digitally’; by which imagery, colour and textures can be transformed from one plane to another resulting in composite pictures of a distinctive quality. The aesthetics of digital composition and realization play a part here and have resulted in the development of a visual language, which is true to the medium.” Art Cornwall
“AMORPHOUS” DIGITAL PRINT ON CANVAS 180CM X 180CM
During this time he organized and curated two artist led exhibitions:
XPOSURE in 2003
Curated with artist Richard Ballinger: A show of large scale paintings by 12 artists from the area held in a former car showroom.
REVOLVER
Curated with artist Jesse Leroy Smith in 2007, with some 70 artist participating in a 6 week ‘revolving’ show with a new exhibition every week.
“Faith Cube” digital print on paper 120 x 180cm
REVOLVER BOOK
The project was well documented in the Book ‘REVOLVER ART CORNWALL’ a year later, which he published together with Jesse and with the support of Falmouth University in 2008.
He now exhibits regularly with Newlyn Society of Artists, NSA, individually and in group shows, for example at Open Space Galleries, View Gallery Bristol, Morvah Schoolhouse and PZ Gallery, Penzance.
“TURNING TABLES” DIGITAL PRINT ON CANVAS 80CM X 105CM
For recent work please see the main page of this website, for more images from ‘History’ please visit the INSTAGRAM feed volkerstoxart
EXHIBITIONS:
BRIEF CV
VOLKER STOX
STOX has conceived and produced many artists videos, paintings and installations, and has shown here and abroad.
He is a member of the NEWLYN SOCIETY OF ARTISTS
Some of his exhibitions include:
JRTV, STOX in BERLIN, PZ Gallerie (sept 19)
‘Turning Tables’ at SCHOOLHOUSE GALLERIE MORVAH
NSA ‘drawing explored’ at Tremenhere Sculpture Garden
NSA ‘Border’ at Tremenhere Sculpture Garden
‘Print’ at EXCHANGE GALLERY Penzance
JUXTPOSITION, OPEN SPACE GALLERY Penryn
VIEW GALLERY, Bristol
REVOLVER ART CORNWALL shows curated and book published
SCHOOLHOUSE GALLERY MORVAH several one man shows
X-POSURE at Space, Penzance curated and exhibited (Group Show)
PENZANCE ARTS CLUB
GALLERIE HAUS BROOKMANN, HAMBURG, GERMANY
LOS ANGELES MUSEUM OF ART. LOS ANGELES
CULTURE SHOCK. MIDLAND GROUP Group Show
BEDE GALLERY, JARROW
AIR GALLERY, LONDON WC1
GERMAN EMBASSY, LONDON W1
ABERBACH FINE ART, LONDON W1 2 one man shows
http://www.nsanewlyn.com/newlyn-society-of-artists/volker-stox