Since the 1980's, Steve Wheeler has been writing, creating and exhibiting work. The scope of his output ranges from drawings, prints, paintings and sculpture, to site-specific installations and projects on a city wide or even global scale. Whilst being primarily London based during the 1980’s and 90’s, he moved to Kent in 2006. In 2014 he lived Bengaluru, India, and in 2015 relocated to Sydney, where he began working collaboratively using digital technologies. He periodically works as APSIMON WHEELER BROWN in collaboration with David ApSimon and Christopher Brown. He has shown his work in numerous London and regional galleries in the UK, as well as internationally in Eire, Holland, Germany, Austria, India and the USA.
As a curator and exhibition organiser, Wheeler has a track record for innovation in utilising venues that have included private houses, shops, factories, warehouses and abandoned synagogues. He has also helped to set up and run artists' studio complexes. From 1990 to 1996 he founded and ran Ampersand in partnership with Steve Warren, a national arts patronage scheme that brought visual artists and the public together, with a series of five exhibitions concluding in a large international show in Dublin. In 2015 he set up Gallery In Space.
In the early 1980’s, he became involved with giving experimental music and poetry performances and edited UN-magazine. His involvement with writing has continued through articles, essays and short stories, through to billboard commissions for London Underground and the forthcoming publication of a recently completed memoir. Other collaborative projects have seen him crossing the boundaries between music and the visual arts: the 1998 ROOT project was a Lo recordings / C[too] collaboration which was exhibited and launched at the Chisenhale Gallery, London. Based on an idea by Jon Tye, the re-workings of ‘sound pieces’ by Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, produced an album that puts Wheeler’s composition alongside the likes of Bowie, Blur and Massive attack. In 2005 he organised and curated News From Nowhere: Visions of Utopia in the birthplace and home of William Morris. The show spanned eight venues with an international line up of 150 artists, designers, film makers, musicians, writers and performers. His most recent work includes a large scale site specific drawing, performed for the Satellite Programme of the 2012 Whitstable Biennale and filmworks in Bangalore 2014. Upon moving to Australia in 2015, he embarked on a new series of works exploring the synaptic space between physical and virtual realms and continues to develop this since returning to the UK in 2016. He describes his current practice as context-specific and exhibits primarily in his head - viewing is strictly by appointment.
As a curator and exhibition organiser, Wheeler has a track record for innovation in utilising venues that have included private houses, shops, factories, warehouses and abandoned synagogues. He has also helped to set up and run artists' studio complexes. From 1990 to 1996 he founded and ran Ampersand in partnership with Steve Warren, a national arts patronage scheme that brought visual artists and the public together, with a series of five exhibitions concluding in a large international show in Dublin. In 2015 he set up Gallery In Space.
In the early 1980’s, he became involved with giving experimental music and poetry performances and edited UN-magazine. His involvement with writing has continued through articles, essays and short stories, through to billboard commissions for London Underground and the forthcoming publication of a recently completed memoir. Other collaborative projects have seen him crossing the boundaries between music and the visual arts: the 1998 ROOT project was a Lo recordings / C[too] collaboration which was exhibited and launched at the Chisenhale Gallery, London. Based on an idea by Jon Tye, the re-workings of ‘sound pieces’ by Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, produced an album that puts Wheeler’s composition alongside the likes of Bowie, Blur and Massive attack. In 2005 he organised and curated News From Nowhere: Visions of Utopia in the birthplace and home of William Morris. The show spanned eight venues with an international line up of 150 artists, designers, film makers, musicians, writers and performers. His most recent work includes a large scale site specific drawing, performed for the Satellite Programme of the 2012 Whitstable Biennale and filmworks in Bangalore 2014. Upon moving to Australia in 2015, he embarked on a new series of works exploring the synaptic space between physical and virtual realms and continues to develop this since returning to the UK in 2016. He describes his current practice as context-specific and exhibits primarily in his head - viewing is strictly by appointment.