Steve Lopes | The Late Riser

In his latest exhibition, Steve Lopes takes his practice further than ever before. A figurative painter, he presents the figure in the landscape, however this time the brush is turned on himself and his Italian heritage.

The migrant experience is a deeply felt one, for those that have left and those who chose to remain at home. A familiar tale for many Australians, The Late Riser explores Lopes’ own interaction with the emotional world of immigration. In a trip to Italy last year Steve Lopes engaged his practice with this, painting his Italian family as figures within the landscape of their island home.

A figurative painter, the addition of personal ties to his subjects has resulted in a series of telling portrayals. Lopes invites you to encounter the colourful people that make up the landscape. Each portrait in the landscape tells a in-depth narrative that summons the drama and strength of European history paintings.

An exhibition of multiple experiences even the title, The Late Riser is a telling one – is it a characterisation of the sleepy Italian island? Or instead revaling of Lopes’ own sleepy connections to Italy, exaggerated by the time apart and geographical distance by living in Australia.

A poetic exhibition, the figurative works are carefully offset by Lopes’ landscape works of the Italian landscape. Ranging from crumbling cities and ruins to the expansive countryside, it is here that the brush becomes more free and gestural as Lopes reacts to the changing scenery and elements.

Prolific in practice, Lopes guides the viewer through his Italy. By sharing his personal narrative Lopes embeds The Late Riser within a shared migrant history, and speaks to a wider experience that many Australians can relate to.

EXHIBITION
Steve Lopes: The Late Riser
Stella Downer Fine Art
5 – 30 April

Courtesy the artist and Stella Downer Fine Art, Sydney.