Hasta La Ideas

I was fortunate enough to catch his show a couple months ago at the Narwhal gallery on Queen West. All the pieces were fairly small and really dark (literally). Big fan!

He was one of the founding members of Team Macho, however the show at Narwhal (The Invisible College) was solo. Here’s the description from the gallery:

“Emerging artist Stephen Appleby-Barr presents a solo show of portraits at Narwhal Art Projects. Entitled The Invisible College, this new body of oil paintings explores Appleby-Barr’s profound involvement with the merits of portraiture. The Invisible College draws inspiration from an independent organization of philosophers whose purpose was to acquire knowledge through experimental investigation in 16th century Europe. Akin to the guild system, this group practice is exemplified by Hegelian collaboration: the free transfer of thought, expertise and tradition carried out without the establishment of designated facilities or institutional authority. Appleby-Barr explores the state of the personal disassociation with tradition and searches to find a connection with one’s self and heritage. Working within a body of meticulously detailed oil portraits, Appleby-Barr conjures clues to uncovering the secrets of his own creation.

Continuing with the imagined legacies first constructed in the esoteric Nortammag Archives, allegoric images depicting varsity, academia, the occult and couture give lineage to an arcane society. Through the deliberate celebrity and obscurement of each character, Appleby-Barr speculates on the traditions of metaphorical, social and personal history. The Invisible College runs October 29th to November 29th at Narwhal Art Projects. The opening reception is Thursday, October 29th from 7-10pm. The artist will be in attendance.”

Click here for more pictures from the show.

He’s a young designer that recently moved back to Hong Kong from Toronto. Lots of interesting work up on his Behance page, as well as on his flickr. I particularly like the ‘Make Something Cool Every Day’ stuff (not the first to do this, but it’s still a good practice).