Born Colac, Victoria 1958; lives and works in Melbourne. Stephen Bush is a painter whose practice is built on a series of works, each created through a different aesthetic approach but linked by their surreal sensibility. His chosen subjects are diverse and atypical: beekeepers, rubbish bins, alpine scenes, Babar the elephant and men on horses, amongst many other idiosyncratic references. Like his subject matter, Bush's painterly range is varied and free-flowing, moving from lurid abstraction to figuration realism. Bush has exhibited extensively in Australia and the USA since 1984. Highlights include his participation in Future Tense: Reshaping the Landscape, Neuberger Museum, Purchase, New York, 2008; as well as a major solo exhibition at SITE Santa Fe in 2007; and a survey exhibition at The Ian Potter Museum, University of Melbourne, 2003.
Read MoreSelected group exhibitions include: Mix Tape 1980s: Appropriation, Subculture, Critical Style, The Ian Potter Centre: National Gallery Victoria, Melbourne, 2013; Marie Celeste, Artspace, New Haven, Connecticut, 2011; Contemporary Encounters, The Ian Potter Centre: National Gallery Victoria, 2010; Contemporary Australia: Optimism, Gallery of Modern Art, Queensland, 2008; The Plot Thickens, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, 2004; and Signs of Life: Melbourne International Biennial, 1999. He is the only Australian painter featured in Phaidon’s current major publication Vitamin P2: New Perspectives in Painting.
