Steve Byrnes

To get the most out of the materials I employ, I try and use them in a way that emphasizes what they are. If I am using paint, I want it to feel like paint. If I am using canvas, I want it to feel like canvas. In order to achieve this, I need to manipulate these materials in a way that provokes them into revealing as much of their inherent materiality as possible. Allowing the canvas to be trampled on, creased, crumpled, and marred, makes it feel more like canvas. Similarly, paint can feel more like paint if misused. By permitting it to travel freely from one location to another, simultaneously sullying multiple surfaces at once, it unabashedly performs its most basic and natural function.

2014
MFA, Washington University in St. Louis

2011
BFA, Thomson Rivers University

2010
Fine Arts Advanced diploma, Georgian College

2005
Certificate in Art and Design, Durham College

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

2015-
Adjunct Instructor, Lindenwood University.

2013-14
Graduate Teaching Assistantship: Painting Majors (Seniors) Washington University in St. Louis—Sam Fox School of Art and Design

2012-13
Graduate Teaching Assistantship: Drawing I Washington University in St. Louis—Sam Fox School of Art and Design

2016

Tropical Modernism, Tucana, Toronto, ON (Solo)

Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition, Nathan Phillips Square, Toronto, ON

2015

Group Show, Bill Lowe Gallery, Atlanta, GA

2014

Just one example of the total wrongness of something I tend to be automatically sure of, Ely Walker Gallery, St. Louis, MO (Curated by Jessica Baran)

MFA Thesis Show, Mildred Lane Kemper Museum of Art, St. Louis, MO (Curated by Karen K. Butler)

Beyond Violet with the Emperor Scorpion, Des Lee Gallery, St. Louis, MO (Curated by Gretchen L. Wagner)

Ruin & Renewal, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, MO

2013

Parabola, Des Lee Gallery, St. Louis, MO

First Year MFA Exhibition, Des Lee Gallery, St. Louis, MO

2012

Paintings, Bending Spoons Gallery, Toronto, ON (Solo)

Drawing For Art, Station Gallery, Whitby, ON

Creemorecentric, Mad & Noisy Gallery, Creemore, ON

2011

Digital, Mixed Media, and Abstract, Ben Navaee Gallery, Toronto, ON

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