Stephen Felmingham
Plymouth
Artist and educator - drawing artist and Academic Dean at Plymouth College of Art
I work with ideas of social renewal and bringing cultural forms into economic and political arenas. Drawing is the basis for this socially-engaged practice, as a language that is the first visible form of thinking, widening the terms of drawing to the social realm and as a mediator in creating social organisations. Thus the areas of economic, political and cultural life in society become mediated by a wider idea of drawing where speaking, drawing and thinking become the artwork. It holds as central the idea that aesthetics lies in the realm of the social. Recent drawings have focused on the ruins of Cold War sites, bunkers, societal memory and trans-generational trauma: research from this project was published by Rowman and Littlefield and is the subject of the BBC Radio 4 programme 'Cold Art'.
Stephen Felmingham studied at Middlesex University and the University of the Arts London (Wimbledon); he completed an MA in Drawing at Wimbledon in 1999 and a practice-led PhD at the University of Leeds in 2014. He is an active member of the LAND2 Research Network of place-based researchers and peer reviews for the TRACEY journal. He writes and reviews on drawing and fine art pedagogy and has a chapter contribution to the recent publication of 'In the Ruins of the Cold War Bunker: Materiality, Affect and Meaning-Making' (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016).
Qualifications and training
2009 - Practice-led Phd: Drawing, Place and the Contemporary Sublime, University of Leeds,
2008 - Post Graduate Certificate in Education, University of Leeds
1999 - MA Drawing in Fine Art Practice, Wimbledon School of Art, London
1992 - BA (Hons) Fine Art, Middlesex University, London
Solo exhibitions
2014- The Violet Club at PCA Gallery, Plymouth (solo show)
2012 - Peripheral Artifacts, Luborimov-Easton Gallery, Deptford, London
2012 - touching:clear, Galerie Lucy Macintosh, Lausanne, Switzerland
2011 - Tocsin Bang - Recent drawings, Union105 Gallery, Leeds
Group exhibitions
2016 - Imagined Landscapes at the RWA, Bristol
2015/6 -Collateral Drawing at UCS, Ipswich (with Sarah Lucas, Ryan Gander, Matthew Darbyshire, Matthew Collings)
2015- Recent Drawings at Plymouth Theatre Royal Gallery (with Joseph Hillier)
2010 - Supermarket - Stockholm Art Fair, Kulturhuset, Stockholm
2009 - The Space Between, Surrounds our Desire, The Event 09, Birmingham
2007 - The Ninth Plinth, Leeds Art Fair, Leeds
2005 - Red October, SevenSeven Contemporary Art, London, E2
Curated projects
2009 - The Space Between, Surrounds our Desire, Axis curated selection - Mona Casey, http://www.axisweb.org/atSelection.aspx?AID=2359
Competitions, prizes and awards
2010 - Celeste Art Prize 2010 Finalist, Celeste Art Prize, New York
2009 - Shortlisted - Jerwood Drawing Prize 2009, Jerwood Space, London
1999 - Winner of the Wimbledon School of Art Post-Graduate Drawing Prize, Wimbledon School of Art, London
Educational experience - tertiary
Academic Dean, Plymouth College of Art
Head of School: Critical and Cultural Studies
Principal Lecturer and Programme Leader BA (Hons) Painting, Drawing & Printmaking at Plymouth College of Art
Associate Lecturer (Drawing) , University College Falmouth, Falmouth 2012
Visiting Lecturer BA Art and Design, University of Leeds, Leeds 2009
Visiting Lecturer BA (Hons) and MA Fine Art, Norwich University College of the Arts, Norwich Lecturer BA (Hons) Fine Art, Leeds College of Art, Leeds 2004-2011
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