“As long as there are questions to ask there will be questions to answer, and I for one believe that with the help of Steven Gregory we can also find answers to some of the questions that for whatever reasons can’t be put into words.”
Damien Hirst, 2005
Steven Gregory was born in Johannesburg (1952), later moving to London to study at St Martin’s College of Art (1970-72) and returning there to complete his degree in 1977. During these 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 found himself quite accomplished with the material, and obtained City and Guilds Craft certificates in stone masonry as well as winning the Worshipful Company of Masons Prize.
Underpinning Gregory’s work is a wicked sense of humour, always looking at his potential subjects with a mischievous glint in his eye. Gregory also has a deep interest in the macabre – since 2002, Gregory has worked extensively with bones and skulls, sourced from a scientific antiques dealer trading in skeletons once used in academic medicine. These pieces explore themes of life and death, exploring our collective anxieties around the topic as well as striking a more celebratory tone. Perhaps as a result of his early training, stone carving also features heavily in Gregory’s sculpture, although he has also developed ideas in bronze and other media.
Gregory’s 2005 solo exhibition Skulduggery, held at the Cass Sculpture Foundation,
received much critical acclaim. He has also contributed to a vast range of major group exhibitions, 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.