Stevie Chow

2020 has been a breakthrough year for the contemporary artist, Stevie Chow as he has quickly become a master at eliciting positive energy through his paintings. Garnering a growing recognition over the past year in the US & UK, his work can be found in public and private collections around the world. 

The Canadian artist often views his works standing somewhere between pop culture, street art & conceptual art. His aim is often focused on representing the dichotomies between material & spiritual fulfilment. Using familiar elements such as, money & gold, bright colors & bold lines, and overlaid with uplifting text prompts, his style is immediately recognizable by their often polished & refined exteriors. Similar to the human experience, the depth of his work continues to expand in complexity the more it is observed within the layers.

Much of his inspiration began from a childhood spent exploring the world, having grown up with parents who were deeply passionate about travel & photography, leading to being exposed to a wide array of cultures from an early age. From trekking with tribes in West Papua to being pulled from school to spend months travelling across the continent of Africa, Stevie had visited over 5 continents by the age of 16. This led to an early fascination with his desires & obsessions around the benefits of material wealth in contrast to observing first hand that happiness isn’t always found through our western views of success. This curiosity was solidified in adulthood, when Stevie chose to relinquish a budding career as an oil & gas engineer for an artistic path. Upon pivoting out of the corporate life, he moved far from his Canadian roots to LA for music and quickly gained some traction after starting a duo project with a friend leading to a “fun, but chaotic” time in which they played multiple local shows a week including gigs at the SoHo house, Nascar, & a small tour in Mexico. However, ultimately this project slowly came to a bittersweet end as the collective vision began to veer in separate directions. Upon the parting of ways with the band, Stevie moved back to his hometown city of Calgary after being away for almost a decade. Eager to discover what to do next and feeling confused after the dissolution of his LA band, he began to dive deep into a time of self-discovery. This eventually led to the re-awakening of his life long passion for drawing & visual art, which he credits to resurfacing from being back in his hometown and reconnecting to his childhood. Which was often filled with alone time to draw as he was an only child and credits his fascination for fine art from visiting many iconic museums & galleries across Europe from travelling at an early age.

For Stevie, the overarching theme of his work is to create art that enlivens our most intimate areas in positive ways. Originating from his own desire to be surrounded by positive affirmations to combat the distractions of our noisy world, his art is often overlaid with prompts that are taken from the processing of his own internal thoughts. 

“To me, my art represents the subtle wisdoms of life that are often challenging to embody without being directly reminded of them in literal ways.”

Much of his work is done as a series of precisely layered resin pours, and often contain a foundation of money & gold, which he expresses as a form of therapy to work through his own obsessions with our material desires and finding a sense of fulfilment. Stylistically, Stevie mentions that much of his inspiration comes from Ed Ruscha for his usage of text & Jeff Koons for his ability to create incredibly enlightening narratives around his work.