Journey from skateboarder to artist has been a long ride

An art show curated partially as a tribute to his late father has allowed a former pro skateboarder to reflect and display work years in the making.

Folded Light, a collection of new college works by Steve Tierney, was shown at Clifton School of Arts from February 13 to 16. The show explored vulnerability and reflection through torn paper and assembled images.

Works varied from brand-new small-scale figurative collages assembled live at a life-drawing event to decade-old board designs from Steve’s days as a pro skateboarder.

"I wanted to show all that stuff as a kind of introduction,” Steve says.

"Even though I grew up in Engadine, I’ve been overseas for a number of years. I moved back to the area about a year ago to spend more time with my parents, so in a way, this show is a bit of a homecoming.”

Steve studied art and design at Sydney Graphics College, and was a pro skateboarder in the 90s, creating artwork for major skating brands. Now Steve uses a massive collection of 1940s and 50s magazines and photo journals to build his art. He favours "precise cuts" and "minimal imagery" to create a clean, intentional look.

"A lot of the pieces are quite inward looking. They sometimes feel like self-portraits, even though they're definitely not at all,” Steve says.

"I like to put them up on the wall for people to then interpret... I just try to use minimal imagery, three or four images, to create something beautiful out of these abstract shapes of bodies."

Friends, family and art lovers shared their thoughts at opening night.

Ros and Vivian

"Naturally we’re going to say it’s spectacular because this is his almost mother-in-law, and mother. So we’re a bit biased, but what we’re enjoying is seeing a 10-year span of his work. I didn't realise that since 2015 his style has changed quite a bit.”

Giovanna

“I met Steve a couple of weeks ago at the LIVED exhibition by Lily Guest and he had a work in the exhibition. And since then, he contacted me to help with the show, which I was very excited about. So that’s what brought me to the show today."

"My favourite work here is The Beginning, which is on all of the advertisements for the show. I just love the colours and the way that it explores the body but not in an overly sensual way, if that makes sense? It's just there to exist and there’s nothing about it. I also just like the way that there’s a mixture of ripped paper with the clean cuts as well. I think that just adds to it."

Barry

"I know Steve through skateboarding, I’ve skated with him a lot over the years. His work is a lot more impressive in real life than on the advertisement. The texture and the form of them come out a lot better in real life. I actually thought the used sandpaper was grip tape, but it is used sandpaper on a closer inspection. That’s awesome.”

Jen and Ron Leigh

Jen: "I'm his sister. I really love the use of the used sandpaper. The blue sparkle's so beautiful. I didn't realise he was using that. Love the sandpaper."

Ron: "I'm his brother-in-law. I've known him for nearly 26 years. It just looks great; the texture's amazing. I like some of his newer, bigger ones, but I like some older ones that kind of take me back to when he was first getting into collage, so 2015 and things downstairs with the skateboards."