Simon Zabell (born 1970) is a British artist living and working in Spain.

Biography

Zabell was born in

Málaga Málaga (, ) is a municipality of Spain, capital of the Province of Málaga, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. With a population of 578,460 in 2020, it is the second-most populous city in Andalusia after Seville and the sixth most pop ...

to an English family that had recently emigrated to Spain. After growing up in

and London he studied painting and sculpture at the

University of Granada The University of Granada ( es, Universidad de Granada, UGR) is a public university located in the city of Granada, Spain, and founded in 1531 by Emperor Charles V. With more than 60,000 students, it is the fourth largest university in Spain. Apar ...

, and then went on to study theatre design at the Slade School of Fine Art. He currently lives in

Granada Granada (,, DIN 31635, DIN: ; grc, Ἐλιβύργη, Elibýrgē; la, Illiberis or . ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the fo ...

where he teaches contemporary sculpture at the city's university. Simon Zabell is a brother of double olympic gold-medalist Theresa Zabell.

Work

After being initially enthusiastic about more formalist art forms, his interest in literature and music led him to become increasingly attracted to the narrative possibilities of painting, sculpture and installation art. This lead him to enroll on a theatre design MFA course at the Slade School of Fine Art in London under the teachings of

Philip Prowse Philip Prowse (born 29 December 1937) is a stage director and designer, and was one of the triumvirate of directors at the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow, Scotland, from 1970 until 2004. Early life and education Prowse was born in England on 29 Dece ...

. Since then he has typically produced art projects that are constructed around research into previous creations or events such as a novel, film or musical composition. He has produced projects based on novels by French author Alain Robbe-Grillet ( ''Jealousy'', ''The Voyeur''''Le Voyeur'', first of Zabell’s projects based on a novel by Alain Robbe-Grillet
/ref> and ''The House of Assignation''), Yasujirō Ozu's film ''Late Autumn'', music by

Olivier Messiaen Olivier Eugène Prosper Charles Messiaen (, ; ; 10 December 1908 – 27 April 1992) was a French composer, organist, and ornithologist who was one of the major composers of the 20th century. His music is rhythmically complex; harmonically ...

and the

Hawaiian Royal Family The Hawaiian Kingdom, or Kingdom of Hawaiʻi ( Hawaiian: ''Ko Hawaiʻi Pae ʻĀina''), was a sovereign state located in the Hawaiian Islands. The country was formed in 1795, when the warrior chief Kamehameha the Great, of the independent island ...

. In recent years most of Zabell's projects and research has revolved around issues related to Polynesian culture, such as historical aspects of Hawaiian music and the South Sea writings of Robert Louis Stevenson. In 2017 Zabell released a short documentary film directed by Gonzalo Posada León - ''Our Man in Tahiti'' - which covers his search for the true meaning of Stevenson's late novel,

The Ebb-Tide ''The Ebb-Tide. A Trio and a Quartette'' (1894) is a short novel written by Robert Louis Stevenson and his stepson Lloyd Osbourne. It was published the year Stevenson died. Plot Three beggars operate in the port of Papeete on Tahiti. They are ...

References

External links

Simon Zabell websiteSimon Zabell on Spanish Contemporary Art Network (SCAN)Simon Zabell on Museo ABC websiteSimon Zabell on Fundación Banco de Santander websiteSimon Zabell on CACMálaga website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zabell, Simon British theatre designers Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art 1970 births Living people Date of birth missing (living people)