Steve Joy's latest body of work explores the complex intersection of tradition, spirituality, and modernity, inviting viewers to reflect on the ongoing dialogue between historical influence and contemporary visual language. Rooted in Byzantine icon painting, Joy’s work maintains a focus on intensity and depth of colour. Gold leaf, hidden beneath layers of varnish, adds a touch of the sacred, a reflection of the spiritual undercurrents that run through the artist’s work. Classical rationality meets explosive energy, as the artist reimagines the visual experience, creating a "remix" of colour and form reminiscent of artistic transformations that shaped the Renaissance. 

The act of creation is deeply rooted in the materials themselves. Joy uses a range of traditional media—gesso, oil, acrylic, shellac, varnish, wax, and gold leaf—working in an additive technique of layering that echoes the medieval panel paintings and Italian devotional images of the 13th and 14th centuries. Joy appreciates the paradoxical irony of using centuries-old methods to produce abstract works that speak a contemporary visual language. 

A key inspiration for Joy from the beginning is the work of Japanese author Yukio Mishima, whose complex engagement with modernity, tradition, and identity provides a philosophical enquiry for the artist. Mishima’s exploration of the loss of traditional values, and the search for personal meaning in a rapidly changing world resonates strongly with Joy's use of ancient techniques and his desire to speak to contemporary existential questions. Mishima’s Tetralogy “Sea of Fertility”, along with his novel The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea, delve into profound themes of reincarnation, beauty, obsession, and moral conflict. Although Mishima set much of his narrative in Japan, the 1976 film adaptation of The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea by filmmaker Lewis Carlino was filmed in Dartmouth, Devon. 

In this exhibition at Velarde, Joy does not just revisit the past; he interrogates it, embracing the contradictions that arise when centuries-old practices are reinterpreted in a modern context. Through the visual richness of his work, Joy reflects his own journey—a documentation of life’s tangible, existential questions—and gives voice to the complex layers of history, culture, and self that have shaped him as an artist.