Michael Stevenson has been described as an 'anthropologist of the Avant-garde'. His work often investigates legends surrounding controversial events that have taken place in the so-called ‘art world’. In the spirit of a conspiracy-theorist, Stevenson proposes odd yet carefully constructed relationships between these legends and historical events. In Can dialectics break bricks 2002, for example, Stevenson weaves connections between the defacement of a Picasso painting, the development of Iran’s first contemporary Western art collection and the 1979 Iran hostage crisis.
Stevenson is an accomplished artist across a range of media including drawing, sculpture and video. In many recent works, he has brought these different media together in sophisticated installations that purport to present documentary and physical evidence that illustrate the artist’s theories. The viewer is always placed in an uncertain position in these installations — left to their own devices to negotiate the artist’s intricate web of fact and fiction.
Michael Stevenson has exhibited extensively in Australia and New Zealand since the late 1980s. He represented New Zealand at the 2003 Venice Biennale. He was also included in ‘(The World May Be) Fantastic: Biennale of Sydney 2002'; and ‘Berlin Nord’, Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, in 2004.
Gallery 4, QAG
A full-colour publication is available from the Gallery Store.
View Michael Stevenson artist Video (6 minute 56 seconds)
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