Steven MacIver: Linear Landscapes

June 22 – June 29, 2015

Dillon Gallery is pleased to announce “Steven MacIver: Linear Landscapes,” our second solo exhibition of Scottish artist Steven MacIver. Following up his first exhibition in 2012 “Spaceman,” which presented cross-discplinary works, this exhibition focuses on MacIver’s investigation in the interplay between line and place in two dimensional works.

Steven MacIver believes that drawing should be viewed as a language, with all the subtleties and idiosyncrasies of meaning, structure and syntax. His research and practice focuses on developing the linguistics of drawing: its role in the mediation of communication between the artist and the viewer, evoking real, remembered and imagined environments.

MacIver’s work has developed these concepts through the investigation of mark-making, exploring the diversity of methods through which line may be made. He calls his artistic method a type of “excavation” because he uses a scalpel to remove paint in a reductive method from the canvas. The result is a structured surface that is both glossy and flat: a cross between drawing and painting.

Steven MacIver was born in the Orkney Islands and completed his BA in Fine Arts at Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen and his MFA at the Slade School of Art. Following his graduation in 2004, MacIver was honored with the Sainsbury Scholarship in Painting and Sculpture at the British School at Rome. Amongst the many awards and grants this gifted young artist has already received, the Rome Prize for study awarded to him by the Slade School placed him as one of the leading young artists from Britain. He currently lives and works outside Oxford.