Steve Rush

Steve Rush was born on April 13, 1960 in the quiet rural county of Cornwall in England. There his early interest in Art was encouraged by his parents and later his teachers.

He studied fine art and design for four years at the Cornwall College of Art and Design, gaining a regional diploma with credit and membership to the Royal Society of Industrial Artists and Designers (BA equivalent).

Starting work first as a fashion illustrator, Rush moved quickly into the world of advertising and design where he stayed for some twelve years. As a senior creative director he was however discouraged by smaller budgets and shorter deadlines.

In 1985 Rush had his first major one man show at the Barbican Centre in London. Here he showed a controversial series of male nudes and men in action, which were considered inappropriate for the venue after they were already hanging. Rush’s agent at the time was almost encouraging the ban as the publicity it would have generated would have been great, however a last minute reprieve was given and the show turned into a success with many follow up sales and commissions.

Between this time and  his move to The Netherlands in 1995, Rush continued to combine his advertising and design work with his fine arts, mainly producing private work for a few individuals and exhibiting occassionally.

In 1995 Rush gave up the world of advertising and concentrated full-time on his art. First of all his work was exclusively in dry pastel, working in several innovative new ways with this old medium. He was lucky enough to be given countless exhibitions in the city and soon became very well known there.

In 1997 his work was again shown in London at the Adonis Art Gallery. His ?Hard?, series had already been shown twice in the Netherlands and demand for the images was so great that he had to produce more in order to have enough to complete the exhibitions.

In 1998 Rush returned to working in oils. He had been asked to show at four venues during that years Gay Games and worked rapidly on producing a great many pieces. His "Fictitious Sports" first shown at Mr.B Leather Store, was a disturbing combination of sport, religion and mythology which worked to striking effect. The four shows, including two openings on the same evening was a very demanding experience for the artist and afterwards he took a long break before his new work took shape.

In April 1999 he exhibited at the Ploos van Amstel gallery. In this group show he dominated a wall with a large tryptich, ?To the Power of Three.? A bold piece using clean white canvas to counterbalance bright strokes of colour.

Rush's influence from the Dutch masters can be clearly seen in his use of the collars known as Ruffs which he includes in highly charged physical situations in an often surreal and disturbing way. He says he intends to try to imbue the normal with the strange and the real with the unreal to add elements from the past to enhance his vision of the future.