Pretty Things
Stephen Altena
The Assembly Gallery at RedChurch Cafe
December 1-23 2021
Artist Statement
While growing up on his parents dairy farm in rural Hamilton, young Stephen Altena dreamed of Pretty Things. The Victorian farmhouse of his childhood with its pressed tin ceilings, patterned wallpapers and china cabinet brimming with ornamental ‘fancies’ informed his youthful aesthetic.
The imbued life of these objects and decorative flourishes instilled in Altena an appreciation for the language of ornament and the emotional balm of the arts and now extends a bridge into his past with its moments of beauty and simple pleasures. Whether through luscious oil paints, delicate coloured pencil drawings or through dreamlike multi layered screen prints Altena evokes a world of delight, an appreciation of pattern and decoration and the fragile and wistful revery of a queer childhood spent dreaming of pretty things.
Stephen Altena
The Assembly Gallery at RedChurch Cafe
December 1-23 2021
Artist Statement
While growing up on his parents dairy farm in rural Hamilton, young Stephen Altena dreamed of Pretty Things. The Victorian farmhouse of his childhood with its pressed tin ceilings, patterned wallpapers and china cabinet brimming with ornamental ‘fancies’ informed his youthful aesthetic.
The imbued life of these objects and decorative flourishes instilled in Altena an appreciation for the language of ornament and the emotional balm of the arts and now extends a bridge into his past with its moments of beauty and simple pleasures. Whether through luscious oil paints, delicate coloured pencil drawings or through dreamlike multi layered screen prints Altena evokes a world of delight, an appreciation of pattern and decoration and the fragile and wistful revery of a queer childhood spent dreaming of pretty things.
