Biography
Stephen Doyle is a Cork based artist and graduate of Crawford College of Art and Design (2017). Doyle’s work references queer identity and queer culture through painting and instillation.
For his graduate show, he received the ’Student of the Year’ Award which included a solo exhibition, ‘Alt Masc’ in the Lavit Gallery and a residency at Backwater Studios. Since graduating last year he has also been shortlisted for various national and international awards including the UK Emerald Pride Art Award and the Zurich Portrait Prize in the National Gallery of Ireland and was the overall winner of the ‘Sunny Art Prize’ and the ‘Ashurst Emerging Artist Prize’.
Doyle explores issues of queer identity through the relationship between figuration and the politics of representation. His latest collection of new works examine the experiences of the Chinese LGBTQIA+ community. Doyle uses the prevailing social control overqueer culture in China as a metaphor to address historic and ongoing discrimination–even stigmatization–of queer people across the globe.
In a series of works informed by a residency in Shanghai, Doyle looks at China’s restrictive social structures and conventions with respect to sexual minorities. The artist focuses on individuals that they encountered during their residency–ranging from a queer activist to anonymous citizens–to ruminate on the tension between the conditions of existence of LGBTQIA+ people and normative sexual morale and behaviour.
Doyle makes portraits of LGBTQIA+ people, and often includes objects in the paintings, a gesture of ‘othering’ the art that mirrors the subject matter it investigates. The artist depicts subjects within everyday settings in a naturalistic manner; they usually sketch a character in situ, then later re-create the drawing in oil paint, sometimes also using their own photographs to finalise the composition.
Painting, and portraiture in particular, is associated with the iconography of power (for example politicians and religious figures), and consequently with mainstream worldviews, of which queer identity and culture have always been excluded. By invoking them, Doyle makes an ironic comment on the subalternisation of the existence of the LGBTQIA+ community, and simultaneously does his part to illuminate it.
Solo Exhibitions
2020 Numb, Solo Exhibition, Triskel Arts Centre, Cork. Curated by Miguel Amado, director of Sirius Arts Centre.
2019 Post-Binary, Solo Exhibition, SO Fine Art Editions, Dublin.
2019 Sunny Art Prize Winner Exhibition, Solo Exhibition, London, UK.
2018 Alt Masc, Solo Exhibition, Lavit Gallery, Co.Cork. Student of the Year Award.
2018 Ashurst Emerging Artist Prize Shortlist Exhibition and Solo Exhibition, Broadwalk House, 5 Appold St, London, UK.
Selected Group Exhibitions
2022 Generation 2022 – New Irish Painting, Butler Gallery, Kilkenny.
2021 NUA, SO Fine Art Editions, Dublin.
2021 Human Animal, Studio 12, Cork.
2021 Boyle Arts Festival, Roscommon.
2021 Queer As You Are, Luan Gallery, Athlone.
2021 Royal Hibernian Academy 191th Annual Exhibition, Invited Artist, Dublin.
2021 New Threads, Crawford Art Gallery, Cork.
2021 30th Anniversary Backwater Artists Studio, Blue House Gallery, Cork.
2020 Lavit Gallery’s Annual Members Exhibition, Lavit Gallery, Cork.
2020 Royal Ulster Academy 139th Annual Exhibition, Belfast, NI.
2020 Winter Show, SO Fine Art Editions, Dublin.
2020 Mason Hayes & Curran Private Annual Exhibition, Dublin.
2019 Harmony Art Exchange Program, Group Exhibition/Residency, Shanghai, China
2019 Sunny Art Prize Winner Exhibition, Solo Exhibition, London, UK.
2019 RoyalUlsterAcademy138thAnnualExhibition,Belfast,NI.
2019 Small Town Decline: Rural Patterns of Decay, Glor, Ennis, Claire.
2019 VUE, National Contemporary Art Fair in association with SO Fine Art Editions, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin.2019
2019 This is a Painting Show, Sternview Gallery, Cork.
2019 Winter Exhibition, Lavit Gallery, Cork.
2019 Art on a postcard, Online/London, United Kingdom.
2018 Alt-Masc, S olo Exhibition, Lavit Gallery, Co.Cork. Student of the Year Award. Guest Speaker – Curator of exhibitions at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Sean Kissane.
2018 Beyond the Binaries, UK Emerald Winter Pride Art Awards, The House of St. Barnabas, London, UK. Judges Include Simon Tarrant, Brenda Emmanus, Frances Segelman, Suzanne van Rossenberg, Ki Yoong.
2018 Ashurst Emerging Artist Prize Shortlist Exhibition and Solo Exhibition, London, UK. Judges Include Conrad Carvalho, Dr. David Bellingham, Aindrea Emelife, Howard Lewis, Briony Marshall, Rosa Sepple, Dr. David Anfam, Anthony Fawcett.
2018 Sunny Art Prize Shortlist Exhibition, London, UK. Judges include Wu Xiaohai, Zhao Jun, Lin Guanhong, Pedro Ip, Chu Weiming, Fan Yaokai, Jocelyn Burton, Yemyungji, Tim Andrews
2018 Zurich Portrait Prize, National Gallery of Ireland. Judges Include Geraldine O’Neill, Sue Rainsford and Tanya Kiang.
2018 Residency Showcase, Crawford College of Art and Design.
2018 VUE, National Contemporary Art Fair in association with SO Fine Art Editions, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin.
2017 Beyond Dialogue, Graduate Exhibition, Crawford College of Art and Design, Co. Cork.
2017 ReCollective, Group Exhibition, St. Peters Event Centre, Co. Cork.
2017 6Marks Drawing Collective, Group Exhibition, C.I.T Wandesford Quay Gallery, Co. Cork.
2016 K – Fest, Art Festival, Kilorglin, Co.Kerry .
2016 Murmuration, 3rd Year Group Exhibition, Village Hall, Co. Cork.
2016 A Good Start Exhibition, Group Exhibition, C.I.T Wandesford Quay Gallery, Co. Cork.
2016 Christmas Art Exhibition, Group Exhibition, C.I.T Wandesford Quay Gallery, Co. Cork.
2015 Reconnect, CCAD Fine Art/ Applied Art, Group Exhibition, C.I.T, Co. Cork.