Christopher Stewart (artist)

Christopher Stewart
Born 1966
London
Nationality British
Occupation Visual artist

Christopher Stewart (born 1966, in London) is a visual artist and educator and is Programme Director of Photography at London College of Communication, University of the Arts London.

Career

Stewart studied Photography at PCL and WSCAD Farnham, graduated with an MA in Photography in 1998 from the Royal College of Art and gained a PhD from the University of New South Wales Art & Design in Sydney. Following graduation from the RCA, he was represented by the London gallery Gimpel Fils. Work that was developed from an initial series of photographs made whilst at the Royal College was later exhibited at the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television in Bradford, the Victoria and Albert Museum,[1] the Fotomuseum Winterthur in Switzerland, and the Whitechapel Gallery in London as well as other international venues.

Art

Stewart's work is concerned with ideas of rehearsal and violence, hierarchies of vision and surveillance. From the 1990s to the mid-2000s he examined the global phenomenon of privatised global security – using this modern hyper-industry as a metaphor for analysing global insecurity. Subsequent projects from the mid-2000s have included Kill House, an analysis of US based disciplinary vernacular structures used for the training of private special-forces prior to deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan and Super Border, photographs taken along the route of the newly opened 300 million euro External Integrated Vigilance System on the southern Andalucian coast in Spain.[2][3]

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions include Super Border at Gimpel Fils, London 2009; Observations at Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool 2006; International Sponsorship Program at Art Cologne in 2001; Imago 2000 at the Palacio de Abrantes Salamanca, Spain 2000.[4]

Group exhibitions include Staging Disorder at UAL in 2015, Sea of Promise for F/STOP Festival, Leipzig 2012; ; Darkside II curated by Urs Stahel at the Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland 2009; Kill House, Theatres of War, Kraków Photomonth, Poland 2007; Observations at Open Eye Gallery Liverpool 2006; Contemporary Complexities, Martin Z. Marguilies Gift at the Samuel P. Harn Museum, University of Florida 2007; Something That I'll Never Really See (Photography from the Victoria and Albert Museum Collection) at the SCVA 2007; Fabula curated by Patrick Henry at the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television, Bradford 2003; Suspendidos at the Canal de Isobel II Gallery in Madrid 2001.[4]

Publications and catalogues

Stewart's work is included in surveys including The Photograph as Contemporary Art, Thames & Hudson World of Art Series edited by Charlotte Cotton, Darkside II, Fotomuseum Winterthur/Steidl edited by Urs Stahel, 100 European Photographers, EXIT Madrid edited by Rosa Olivares, Langford's Basic Photography Ninth Edition, Focal Press, and The Critical Dictionary, Black Dog Publishing, edited by David Evans.

Curating and writing

Stewart curated the group exhibition Staging Disorder with Esther Teichmann in 2015 for University of the Arts London which included the work of An-My Lê, Richard Mosse, Broomberg and Chanarin, Sarah Pickering, Claudio Hils and Geissler/Sann. The exhibition was accompanied by a publication with essays by David Campany, Howard Caygill, Alexandra Stara, Adam Jasper, Esther Teichmann and Christopher Stewart; Private at the Hockney Gallery whilst a student at the Royal College of Art in 1997 which included the work of Clare Strand and Maggie Lambert; Infraliminal at Stills Gallery for the Edinburgh Fringe in 2001 which was reviewed in The Guardian[5] and included the work of Rut Blees Luxemburg, Sophy Rickett and Juan Delgado.

He has curated and written exhibition introductions for a number of shows for university galleries including Edition, an exhibition of sixty prototype and dummy books at the University of Brighton during the Brighton Photo Biennial 2006. Catalogue essays include a commissioned from the Krackow International Photomonth Festival in Poland in 2010. The Festival's focus was on British Photography and included exhibitions by John Stezaker and Tony Ray Jones and the focus of Stewart's essay was an analysis of the last decade of British photography.

Teaching

Stewart is Programme Director of Photography at London College of Communication, University of the Arts London. He held the position of Associate Professor at both RMIT University and UTS University in Australia and Head of Photography at the National Art School in Sydney. From 2004 to 2008 he was Principal Lecturer and foundation head of the academic area of Photography, Moving Image and Sound at the University of Brighton. At the University of Brighton, he was also Program Director of the MA in Photography.

From 1994, Stewart taught practice, history and theory in London as a sessional academic including at the Royal College of Art, Tisch School of Art International Program London, the University of Westminster and London Guildhall University. He was subsequently Program Director of the BA (Hons) Photography degree at the Kent Institute of Art and Design.

References

  1. ↑ Victoria and Albert Museum Collection reference page https://collections.vam.ac.uk/exhibition/3309-something-that-ill-never-really-see-contemporary-photograph/260/
  2. ↑ "RMIT researcher takes the long walk". RMIT. 1 April 2009. Retrieved 9 August 2012.
  3. ↑ Source Photographic Review, issue 56 Autumn 2008 http://www.source.ie/archive/issue56/Christopher_Stewart_page_21_52_57_11-01-11.php
  4. 1 2 "Christopher Stewart". Gimpel Fils. Retrieved 9 August 2012.
  5. ↑ Mahoney, Elisabeth (9 August 2001). "Infraliminal". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 August 2012.
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