About

Work

It is always difficult to know what to say about one’s work; to quote Philip Guston, ‘the only things you can really talk about in painting are impossible to talk about’.

There is an ambiguous central presence within compositions, with a multitude of revelations; sometimes the self, or an ancestor or a phantom shape shifter, sometime benign and good overseers, sometime oaf with the potential for stupidity. They are cultural representations in one form or another, frequently revealing the characteristics of mankind that takes on many different forms. What is perceived in the debris is ourselves.

These thoughts have been loitering in the studio for a very long time. In addition, even pigment, brushes and painting history have also become a form of mythical Nemesis. This omnipresence, coupled with a sense of inarticulation, is continuously emergent, frequently manifesting itself as a painting within a painting.

Curriculum Vitae

2021
MAC3 - Exposition d’Art Contemporain, Dole, France. Dole Contemporary art and music festival, Chapelle des Jésuites.
2019
A Dessin 5, Sète, France Biennial French contemporary drawing exhibition, Chapelle du Quartier
2012-2017
Cultural leadership- consultancy and public engagement in the Arts, UK
Research and writing practice: What Is To Be Done? (Cambridge Scholars, 2014).
2012
Mining Couture, Huddersfield Art Gallery, UK. Exhibition including sculptures, paintings, drawings, textiles, and garments (Barber Swindells).
Mining Couture, Snibston Discovery Museum, UK. Arts Council funded 12-month residency (Barber Swindells), including on-site studio, open studio events, public presentations, exhibition, and a book Mining Couture (Black Dog).
Maximum Exposure, Somerset Art Works, UKPublic art project, public sculpture, events, and exhibition (Barber Swindells).
2011
The Stag and Hound, Project Space Leeds (PSL), UK
Large multi-media installation exhibition: animation, video, prints, sculptures, neon, sound, photography, painting (Dutton and Swindells, curated by Kerry Harker – Curatorial referee).
2010
Surface Depth, H Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand. Video animation in group exhibition with Thai artists (Dutton and Swindells).
Summoning the Face of the Other, New Zealand Film Archive, Auckland, New Zealand.Stephen Swindells and Amanda Newall drawings and prints.
2009
Institute of Beasts, Kuando Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei, Taiwan
Large multi-media installation exhibition: animation, video, prints, sculptures, sound, photography (Dutton and Swindells).
2008
International Artist-in-Residence, Ssamzie Space, Seoul, South Korea.Three-month international residency and exhibition (Dutton-Swindells).
Drawing Breath, Lugar Do Desenho, Porto, Portugal. Group exhibition, a series of prints and drawings.
Preoccupations: Things Artists do Anyway, Studio Bibliotheque, Hong Kong.
Prints, drawings, and a book art project (Dutton and Swindells).
2007
A Little Bit Goes a Long Way, Consortium Gallery, Amsterdam, NL.Video and large-scale wall drawing, group show (Dutton and Swindells).
2006
text + work = work, Bournemouth Arts Institute, UK. Multi-media installation exhibition: animation, video, prints, sculptures, sound, photography (Dutton and Swindells).
The Dog & Duck, Kookmin University Gallery, Seoul, South Korea. Multi-media installation exhibition: animation, video, prints, sound, photography (Dutton and Swindells).
2005
Folklore, APT Gallery, London, UK. Group exhibition of paintings, vinyl-text piece on gallery window.
2003
Entropic Gym Variation, Sheppard Gallery, University of Nevada, Reno, USA. Multi-media installation exhibition: video, prints, sculptures, photography (Dutton and Swindells).
Kayaköy, Catalyst Arts, Belfast, Northern Ireland.Multi-media installation exhibition: video, photography, and text works(Dutton & Peacock, Swindells).
2002
Entropic Gym, Mercer Union Centre for Contemporary Art, Toronto, Canada
Video: Photography and text works installation (Dutton and Swindells, Peacock).
Power to the People, Contemporary Art Forum Kitchener 02, Ontario, Canada.
Video installation (Dutton and Swindells).
2000
Kayaköy, Pekao Gallery, Toronto, Canada. Photography, video installation plus textual works (Dutton & Peacock, Swindells).
1999
Haecceitas Star, Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield, UK. Solo exhibition, painting installation.
2011
Fellow of Higher Education Academy (Recognition reference 45530)
2010
Postgraduate Certificate in Research Supervision, University of Huddersfield
2004
PhD: Art and Citizenship, Sheffield Hallam University
1994
MA Fine Art, Manchester Metropolitan University
1990
BA (Hons) Fine Art: Painting (First), Sheffield Polytechnic
Please see slide show below.
Mining Couture, Editors Barber Swindells (2012): Black Dog Publishers, London. ISBN 978 1 907317 927
Institute of Beasts, Dutton & Swindells, Published by Cornerhouse (2011) ISBN 978 1 899913 5
Who am I to Disappear, Wrexham Arts Centre, Wrexham, Simon Burton exhibition, text by Stephen Swindells (2008) ISBN 1 903409 07 1
Misleading Epiphenomena, Steve Dutton, Dr Steve Swindells and Dr. Barbara Penner (2005), ArtWord Press, London, ISBN 0-9543908-7-3
Techniques of Memory Essay for Barbara Howey Exhibition, Huddersfield Art Gallery, (2005) ISBN 1 872482 75 9
Site + Sight: Translating Cultures, Duton and Swindells, Earl Lu Gallery, Singapore (2002) ISBN 981 04 6705 2
Vim & Vigour Dutton and Swindells, MASS Publication, Sheffield (2000) ISBN 0 863399045
Vesuvius Photo 98 commission, Rotherham Museum & Arts, (Dutton, Peacock, Swindells, 1998) ISBN 086339
2016
£20,000 Enterprise funding. Partnership with East Street Arts, Leeds for PhD Scholarship on Artist Live/Work scheme.
2015
£45,000 + VAT. Enterprise funding. Consultancy for Creative Scene, Dewsbury. Creative People and Places 2015 - 2017.
2015
£84,000. Arts Council England: ROTOR Transdisciplinary Dialogue and Debate.
Huddersfield Art Gallery. Arts Council funding for two years of the ROTOR partnership programme with HAG, embedding public engagement and creative interpretation at its core.
2012
£6,500 (awarded to Barber Swindells) Arts Council England/Somerset County Council, ‘Maximum Exposure Commission’. Maximum Exposure was awarded to Barber Swindells following a open call national competition. In 2012 outputs from the commission will be exhibtited in Yeovil Glove Making Museum and Huddersfield Art Gallery. We are expecting regional BBC in Somerset and Yorkshire to feature the work.
2011
£20,000 (awarded to Barber Swindells) Arts Council England/Leicestershire County Council, Transform II Commission. Transform II was awarded to Barber Swindells following open call national competition. This is a major commission which has resulted in a number of artworks, designs and a book to be published by Black Dog.
2011
£30,000 AHRC, Block Grant Partnership (Capacity Building)
Successful award for two AHRC MA by Research in Fine Art for 2012 and 2013. This is the first AHRC postgraduate studentships for the School of Art, Design and Architecture, Huddersfield.
2010
£1,500 (awarded to Dutton and Swindells) Sheffield Museums and Millenium Galleries Trust. By invitation from Sheffield Museums and Millenium Galleries Trust.
2009
£24,000 British Council Prime Minister Initiative 1 (PMI1)
The PMI1 bid funded a four year student exchange programme for Architecture and Fine Art students at the University of Huddersfield.
2008
£23,500 (awarded to Dutton and Swindells) Arts Council England, Ssamzie International Residency. The award enabled Dutton and Swindells to complete the three-month residency programme and make a number of major pieces of work which have been exhibtited across Asia in Korea, Tiawan and Thialand. The award also contributed to the book ‘Institute of Beasts’ published by Cornerhouse 2011.
2007
£1,200 (awarded to Dutton and Swindells) British Council
This was a collaborative award from the British Council for five British artists (which include Dutton and Swindells) to travel to Amsterdam and exhibit artwork in Consortium Gallery, Amsterdam. All five artists contributed to writing and project managing the award.
2006
£500 (awarded to Dutton and Swindells) British Council
This was an award for Dutton and Swindells to airfrieght art work to Kookmin Gallery in Seoul, South Korea. The bid was written collaboratively.
2002
£500 (awarded to Dutton, Peacock and Swindells) British Council
This was an award for Dutton and Swindells to airfrieght art work to Mercer Union Centre for Contemporary Art, Toronto, Canada. The bid was written collaboratively.
1999
£750 Arts Council, Yorkshire Region. A small individual award to compliment existing gallery Arts Council funding. Funded Haecceitas star, Crossley Gallery, Dean Clough, Halifax, and Haecceitas star, Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield.

Life

I started rock climbing at the age of thirteen, by the age of seventeen I had climbed to the summit of Mont Blanc, by eighteen I spent four months climbing in Yosemite Valley in America, and by the age of twenty I spent three-months climbing and mountaineering in the Colorado rockies and the Grand Tetons of Wyoming, followed by regular trips to the French Alps. Climbing was everything until the age of twenty-six when I finally decided to go to art school, though climbing continued to remain important for most of my adult life. The learning experience of these formative years, of understanding risk, alongside an awareness of space, eventually began to migrate into the studio.

I started a teaching career in UK universities at the age of thirty-two and over time I became a full-time academic and eventually moved into a senior management role as a Professor of Creative Practice and a Director of Research. As a professor I lead a number of projects in cultural leadership and public engagement in the arts with non-for-profit arts organisations. The decision to resign early from an academic life and begin our adventure of establishing an art residency in France was not difficult to make; this chapter was always hovering in the background, it was just a matter of time. Our thinking behind the residency can be read in the journal article A Residency in the Morvan at our residency website: stephenswindellsstudio.com

During my time as an academic I continued to remain an artist of sorts, exhibiting my work widely across North America, Asia and Europe, as an individual artist and in artist collaborations. I completed a three-month art residency in Seoul, south Korea (2008) with Steve Dutton and in the installation art collaboration Dutton and Swindells we had exhibitions in Toronto, Reno, Tiawan, Seoul, Bangkok and Singapore, as well as London, Belfast and Amsterdam. As an individual artist I have also exhibited my work in municipal, public-sector galleries across the UK. All this gave me experience of working with gallery directors, curators and gallery/museum staff. During this time I was also a successful recipient of various funding awards as an individual artist, in artist collaborations and as an academic professor; the two awards that stand out are UK Arts Council funding applications of £23,500 (2008) for a three-month art residency in Seoul and £82,000 (2015) to coordinate and curate an exhibition programme at Huddersfield Art Gallery.

I was awarded a first-class honours degree in Fine Art from Sheffield Polytechnic in 1990, an MA in Painting from Manchester School of Arts in 1994 and I completed a practice-led PhD on Art and Citizenship from Sheffield Hallam University in 2004.

Apron slabs, Yosemite Valley, USA, 1979
Sea-cliff climbing, Devon 1981
Hitch-hiking across France, 1982
Walter Bischoff Gallery (Stuttgart), San Jose Studio, 1988. Walter kindly lent me the studio for six weeks
Exchange student, San Jose, 1988
Walter Bischoff Gallery (Stuttgart), San Jose Studio, 1988. Walter kindly lent me the studio for six weeks
Degree Show Painting, 3m x 2.4m, oil on canvas, 1990
Haecceitas Star, 1999, Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield, UK. Solo exhibition of painting installation
Ryoan-ji Temple, Zen rock garden, Kyoto, 2008. This garden remains influential in painting compositions
Dutton and Swindells with Seo-Yeon (Ssamzie Space Studio Assistant) 2008
2016
Morvan studio 2023