Steven Gregory

b.1952

Steven Gregory was born in Johannesburg and studied at St Martin’s College of Art, London (1970-72), returning there to complete his degree in 1977. During the intervening years Gregory was determined to engage with tools and to learn traditional skills, which led him to become an apprentice stonemason to the company Ratty and Kett, where he worked on Westminster Abbey and Hampton Court. He obtained City and Guilds Craft certificates in stone masonry and won the Worshipful Company of Masons Prize.

Gregory is a sculptor with a wicked sense of humour who relishes the idea of being up to no good and is often found looking at potential subjects with a mischievous glint in his eye. Perhaps as a result of his early training, stone carving features largely in Steven Gregory’s sculpture, although he has also developed ideas in bronze and other media. His intention is to make work that cannot be disregarded and sometimes results in harrowing images of the human condition. Since 2002, the central theme to Gregory’s work features human bones and skulls as a celebration of both life and death.

In 2005 Gregory’s solo exhibition Skulduggery, at the Cass Sculpture Foundation received much critical acclaim. He has also contributed to a vast range of major group exhibtions, including Thinking Big, 21st Century British Sculpture, at the Peggy Guggenheim Museum, Venice (2002-3) and Animal Fantastique at Les Amis du Doujon deVes, Paris (2002). He is also a regular exhibitor at the annual Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition.