Painted City
Steven Hall
22 August–8 September

A love letter to Melbourne, Painted City presents thirteen new paintings of Melbourne by Steven Hall created in 2024.

This new series of artwork captures serendipitous impressions from inner city life in Melbourne, with a focus on colour, shadows and light. The artist was inspired by paintings by the French Impressionists, especially the landscapes of Monet and Courbet, and his paintings are anchored in research into the colour theory, revolutionary techniques and preoccupations of the Impressionists.

The subject is the inner north of Melbourne, where the artist lives and works. The thread connecting all of the artwork together is the elevation of scenes from everyday life from around the city. The artist is strongly influenced by practitioners of minimalism like Johannes Vermeer, however, rather than painting domestic interiors, the artist utilizes a Vermeer-like stylistic simplicity of form in painting the modern city street (emphasizing the subject above personal mark-making).

Steven's artwork also offsets realistic, almost still-life elements with illustration. For example, a street mural painter is the focal point, whilst the buildings to either side melt into abstract forms. Dappled light falls between the branches of London Plane trees, adjacent to sheer geometric shapes.

Steven Hall is a visual artist whose practice is based in Naarm/Melbourne. Originally from country Victoria, he has lived and worked in Melbourne for many years.

August 2024 will mark Steven’s second solo exhibition with Brunswick Street Gallery, with his first solo show with BSG being in November 2023. Steven has participated in group exhibitions across Australia, completed numerous commissions for private clients, holds a bachelor of Visual Arts and Design, Postgraduate Degree in Creative Writing and Bachelor of Arts. He received the Golden Key International Honours Society Award for Academic Achievement.

Currently his practice is focused on making landscape images of Melbourne city in oils, pivoting to the iconic and historic facets of the city.