Wright (Stephen), Exposition "Memories and Connections" (2010)

During the month of July 2010, Stephen Wright, author of the House of Dreams Museum in East Dulwich, UK, had an exposition in the Last Tuesday Society in London.

On its Facebook timeline the Last Tuesday Society published an introduction to this exposition, which gives a good impression of Wright's creative activity. The same text (somewhat more elaborated) can also be found on the Victor Wynd Fine Art website.

Stephen Wright tells us that he is our puppeteer - sad and lonely, and that he has produced a body of work that is wonder inspiring, deeply strange, slightly disturbing and at times more than a little funny, he is neither afraid of being extremely silly nor of telling us about the deepest and darkest parts of his soul.

Just over ten years ago a chance encounter with outsider art changed his understanding of how he could express himself and he began the transformation of his Dulwich home into The House of Dreams Museum. The place has become a shrine filled warren of mosaics with a debt to popular religious art from Latin America, India & Haiti, junk, toys, glitter, bottle tops, dolls, old pottery, shards and kitsch souvenir objects embellish every surface as he seeks to come to terms with the world around him with extensive texts dealing with personal crises and joys.

Since opening his museum has hosted thousands of visitors and owing to its glorious nature, its future is assured.

For his first gallery solo show, Memories & Connections, Stephen has produced an extensive body of work dealing with his personal sense of loss and bereavement following the recent deaths of three close family members resulting in a far darker vision of life, with a heavy debt to the Dia de los Muertos & Haitian Voodoo culture as he examines his memories and loss and what it means to be alive and alone.

He says of the show:

" The work is rooted in memories of loved ones from my past, and my developing connection with energies and spirits from another place.......another plane.

I am a conduit for the work I produce. I make real in various forms the energies that connect with me.

The creatures and figures reveal themselves to me through the process of work.

My fascination with the objects other people discard, provides me with an endless source of materials and inspiration. My high regard for outsider art and naive and intuitive art continues to play a vital influence on me ".

Stephen Wright has enjoyed a long and varied career in the arts. In 1980 he received a BA Hons in Printed Textiles from Liverpool University and continued his studies at Manchester University to receive a MA Hons in 1982. He set up his studio with the assistance of a Crafts Council Grant to produce hand painted and printed fabrics where he received several private commissions from a string of beautiful actresses including Vanessa Redgrave, Judy Dench, Cleo Laine and Shirley Bassey. He then went on to produce his own fashion collection under his own label and after shows in Paris, Milan and London sold his lines to Liberty, Harvey Nichols and Bloomingdales in New York. From 1994 to 1996, he was the head stylist at Elle Decoration before he moved on to setting up a stationary company designing, producing and marketing designs that came to stock the shelves of The Designers Guild, Heals, the Conran Shop.

In the late 1990's, Stephen decided to start all over again and began creating elaborate mosaic works for the Arts Council and other private commissions. He also started his life project, The House of Dreams Museum.

added to OEE texts august 2010