Statement.
My work is explicitly positioned between dialogues and discussions concerning site-specific installation, architecture, and expanded concepts of painting and photography. Implicitly, the work is dealing with dialogues around consciousness, perception and aspects of memory. Key concerns with this process is extending and finding relationships between the audience and the environment of the site through immersion, and consequently changing the perception of the viewer.
Stephen Cooper was the Head of the Painting Pathway at Winchester School of Art ,University of Southampton. Stephen is now earnestly pursuing his artistic career and is currently involved in varied and diverse projects. His work combines painterly and sculptural elements in assemblages and installations that respond directly to the sites where he exhibits, making use of architectural features to support and display the work. He exhibits his painting widely both nationally and internationally with shows at the John Jones Gallery London, K3 Gallery in Zurich, Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and the Hyde Abbey in Winchester. He has also curated projects such as the Park Avenue exhibition at Southampton City Art Gallery. Selected Exhibitions 2004 An intervention into the Far Eastern Collections, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. 2005. Offline, Towner Gallery, Eastbourne. Catalogue by Matthew Rowe, Exhibition Director 2007 Off at a Tangent: an installation in response to The Floating World, an exhibition of Japanese prints, Southampton City Art Gallery 2009 Park Avenue: An Intervention into the Southampton Art Gallery. Curated by Stephen Cooper 2010 History: a site-specific installation in Hyde Abbey Chamber, Winchester. 2012 Light and Time: 5 Years Gallery. Site specific installation. Selected By Alex Schady. 2013 'Offering': Architectual installation Stephen Cooper and Alice Kettle, Winchester Cathedral. 2014 Apt Open : Apt Gallery Deptford. Selected by Paul Noble. 2015 Caesura et Vide Supra. Curated by Stephen Cooper and Lewis Betts. Lewisham Art House. London SE21. 2015 Chalk: Imagining the Infinite. Part of Ten Days. Winchester. Mostra December 2017. British School in Rome.
Education
- 1971-75 St. Martin’s School of Art (BA Hons)
- 1976-79 Royal College of Art (MA)
Solo Exhibitions
- 1979 Hull School of Art
- 1985 Spacex, Exeter
- 1986 Ikon Gallery, Birmingham
- 1989 Smith Jariwala Gallery, London
- 1990 Todd Gallery, London
- 1991 Smith Jariwala Gallery at DEGW, London
- 1992 Smith Jariwala Gallery, London
- 1995 Kapil Jariwala Gallery, 4 New Burlington Street, London
- 2001 Off Line, Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne, 3 February – 16 April, touring to The Winchester Gallery, 10 October – 2 November
- 2001 Panorama Gallery, Barcelona
- 2003 k3 Gallery, Zurich
- 2004 An intervention into the Far Eastern Collections, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
- 2007 Off at a Tangent: an installation in response to The Floating World, an exhibition of Japanese prints, Southampton City Art Gallery
- 2010 History: a site-specific installation in Hyde Abbey Chamber, Winchester
Selected Awards.
- 1974 Pratt Award, St Martin’s School of Art, London
- 1976 John Minton Travel Award
- 1977 Anstruther Drawing Prize
- 1978 John Murray Travel Award
- 1979 Berger Award (major), Royal College of Art, London
- 1980 Painting Fellowship, Ulster University, Belfast
- 1989 ERASMUS Exchange Artist, Barcelona
- 1995 Winchester School of Art, Research Grant
- 2003 AHRB Artists and Performers Small Award
- 2013.10 Days Award. Interdisciplinary Arts Platform. Stephen Cooper and Alice Kettle,
- Winchester, Winchester.
- 2015.10 Days Award. Chalk: Interdisciplinary Arts Platform. Winchester.
- 2017 Abbey Award. 3 months residency at the British School in Rome