Stephen Johnston

Johnston was Born in 1987 in Co. Down, graduating with a BA in Fine and Applied Arts from University of Ulster in 2010. Johnston paints full-time and has won The De Veres Art Award and the Towry Award- best from Northern Ireland at the NOAC.
He has exhibited work in Belfast, Dublin, London, including the Saatchi Gallery, Paris and Australia.
His inspiration comes from the poetry of everyday life, contemporary artists such as
Michael Borremans, David Kassan and Alyssa Monks. Old masters including Rembrandt, Turner
and Caravaggio, as well as the obvious surrealists Dali and Magritte also provide inspiration.

Johnston’s work explores the relationship between everyday objects and the figure.
He does this by juxtaposing the figure, inanimate objects and different surrounding contexts. Johnston’s body of work is a continual experimentation of this concept, putting the focus back onto things that might ordinarily have been overlooked. The quirky manner in which he pulls and twists narratives, highlighted by the realistic nature of his work, sheds light on the camouflaged absurdities hiding in plain sight. Johnston invites the viewer to dig through the layers of mundane normality with the shovel of imagination to unearth new perspe...

2010
BA (Hons) Fine and Applied Art. University of Ulster.

2006
Diploma in Foundation Studies (In Art and Design). University of Ulster.

Solo Exhibitions.

2014
Observations, LethBridge Gallery, Brisbane, Australia.

Tommy Bowe Series, The Merchant Hotel. Gormleys Fine Art, Belfast, Northern Ireland.

2011
Perceptions, Art Tank. Belfast, Northern Ireland.


Group Exhibitions.

2015
Hennessy Portrait Award, National Gallery. Dublin, Ireland.

VUE: National Contemporary Art Fair, Hibernian Academy, Dublin, Ireland.

134th Royal Ulster Academy of Arts Annual Exhibition, Ulster Museum, Belfast, Northern Ireland

Semblance, Gormleys Fine Art Gallery. Dublin, Ireland.

Heart of Hope, Crescent Art Centre, Belfast, Northern Ireland.

185th Royal Hibernian Academy Annual Exhibition, Gallagher Gallery, Dublin, Ireland.

36th Brisbane Rotary Art Spectacular, Brisbane, Australia.

London Art Fair, Gormleys Fine Art, London, England

2014
133rd Royal Ulster Academy of Arts Annual Exhibition, Ulster Museum, Belfast, Northern Ireland.

184th Royal Hibernian Academy Annual Exhibition, Gallagher Gallery, Dublin, Ireland.

2013
132nd Royal Ulster Academy of Arts Annual Exhibition. Ulster Museum, Belfast, Northern Ireland.

183rd Royal Hibernian Academy Annual Exhibition, Gallagher Gallery, Dublin, Ireland.

10000 Art Award Exhibition, ...