Symbiosis

After Steve Allen graduated from Loughborough University in 2000 with a degree in Jewellery and silversmithing, he began work as a sculptor/modelmaker for The Alchemy Carta, where he still works to this day. Steve produces the master models for all the in-house ranges, specifically the Alchemy Gothic/1977, as well as a wide variety of commissions including band merchandise (including The Cure, Paradise Lost, Opeth, The Rolling Stones etc...), film and tv (including Stardust, Dr Who, Robin Hood, Disney, etc...) and theatre (for The Circus Of Horrors). Steve also produces one-off pieces of jewellery mainly in silver and precious stones, however he has found himself to be increasingly drawn to 2-dimensional work, examples of which were first shown in the inaugral Danse Macabre exhibition of 2007.

Steve's use of the figure to express a story or emotion has developed over the course of a few years after being inspired by the work of Giacometti and Graham Sutherland's 'Crucifixion'. The contradictions in Christian ideology has always affected his work, the obsession of violence within it and the religious oppression of women, but he is concerned with portraying the idea of beauty in darkness and a certain decadence in colour, a stark contrast to the pale skin of his subjects. Steve is currently working on a series of paintings inspired by the book 'Venus in Furs', by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch and 19th century nude photography. The aim to create a sense of sinister eroticism and dread. These paintings are in a variety of media, predominantly acrylic, but also ink, pencil, pastel, charcoal and pen.