Through a language of seemingly cool and indifferent symbols, Stephen Ives presents us with a colour-coded manual to the human psyche.



However, upon reading these symbols, you quickly realize that there is nothing cool or indifferent about the contents spelt therein. Through the poetry of his language, Stephen bares the naked confessions of an honest mind, brutally uncompromising and universally relatable.



Working mostly in illustration and a form of sculpture that Stephen refer to as ‘bricolage’, his metaphors are blended with artistry and flawless technique into a dreamscape reminiscent of the Franco-Belgian Bande dessinée and the early surrealists. You are reminded of your first love, your secret identities and the things of which you dare not speak.