Gallery White Box is pleased to present a series of new works on wood and paper by renowned abstract painter Steve Joy. Icons and Old Gold represents Joy’s attempts to reconcile the often undefined spiritual elements of abstract expressionism with the artist’s own longstanding engagement with the techniques and phenomena of Eastern European Orthodox icon painting.

STEVE JOY

Icons and Old Gold

22–31 May, 2026

Paintings on wood an on paper.

From smaller studies on paper to larger paintings of up to two or three metre, Joy’s work with gold leaf, wood, and beeswax hints at the divine while situating the beholder in a material world of colour, rhythm, and presence. Icons and Old Gold at Gallery White Box, Blackheath, is Steve Joy’s first London exhibition in 45 years, the artist having spent much of the intervening time working in Norway, Japan, France, NewYork and his present base in Omaha, Nebraska.

“Abstract painting has frequently quoted the influence of the transcendental and the spiritual in art.This was propagated strongly at the time of the Abstract Expressionists, but the term has been used too often without true meaning to justify self-referential painting without subject matter. I wanted to get to the heart of the matter by studying at length the history of Icon painting - particularly Greek Icons - backed up with travels to the places of inspiration in Greece. The paper works here are studies for larger paintings in which I try to bring the history of Icon painting into our time.” – Steve Joy, 2026.

Biography

Having served with the RAF and commenced training to become an ordained minister, abstract painter Steve Joy (Plymouth, UK, 1952) converted to art in the early 1970s, studying at the Cardiff and Exeter Colleges of Art and completing his MFA at the Chelsea School of Art in London. Following his second MFA at Japan’s Kyoto University of Arts, Joy became a Professor at Trondheim School of Art and the Bergen National Academy of Fine Arts in Norway, and the Ecole des Beaux Art in France. Considered one of the world’s foremost thinkers and practitioners of abstract art as a spiritual vessel, Joy’s dedication to the language of non-objective art responds to the legacy of abstract expressionists, including Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, and Barnett Newman, while interrogating the power and mystery of centuries-old Iconographic art. Public collections featuring Joy’s work include: Lincoln Centre, New York; United States Embassy Collection, Washington D.C.; Joslyn Art Museum, Nebraska; The Japan Foundation, Tokyo; and The Arts Council Collection, UK.

22–31 May, 2026. Friday-Sunday, 10-5, or by appointment.

Private View: Friday 22 May 6-8p.m. RSVP

Gallery White Box, 5 Hare & Billet Road, SE3 0RB, Blackheath, London.

https://gallerywhitebox.co.uk/

or Please contact curator: Aleksandra Niemczyk (+44 7422 706825)

gallerywhiteboxinfo@gmail.com

Instagram: @gallerywhitebox