membership / artist member

Stephen Nelson

http://www.stephenelson.com
download cv here

biography

Stephen Nelson was born in Liverpool. He was educated at Cardiff and Birmingham where he was awarded a masters in Fine Art. Based in London since 1986, he has established his sculptural practice and has collaborated with several artists on multi disciplinarily projects including New Child Sexuality with Struan Leslie at Chisenhale Dance Space.

In 1999 Stephen was appointed the Arts Council of England Helen Chadwick Fellow in sculpture where he developed a series of works about wolves that related to his time spent at the British School in Rome and at Oxford University.

He has exhibited in both Britain and Abroad. Recent exhibitions include Elefest in Elephant and Castle, London, and Thy Neighbours Ox at Space Station 65, London. In 1996 and 1998 he curated two exhibitions of British Artists for the British Council in Eritrea and Tanzania.

Stephen Nelson was featured in Contemporary Art Society's ARTfutures 2008 held at Bloomberg SPACE, London.

statement

Strange, fragile constructions in chicken wire, Japanese tissue, fabric and paint sit on ‘found’ plinths. The under water photograph of a large Brain Coral in a similar, opposite way sits looking sculptural in a ‘collaged’ environment. Stephen's works are hard to classify yet nothing but themselves. They defy a critical context by representing something that is otherwise indescribable, which is the point.