Stephen McNeilly (born 1968) is a London-based artist and writer whose research-lead practice includes photography, filmmaking, curating and book publishing. He is the executive director and museum director of the

Swedenborg Society The Swedenborg Society was founded in 1810 to translate into English and publish the works of Emanuel Swedenborg. Its original name was the London Society for Printing and Publishing the Works of Emanuel Swedenborg. The Society's headquarters, S ...

, London, and oversees its annual ''Swedenborg Film Festival'' and ''Artist in Residence'' programme. He is also the founding editor of the ''Swedenborg Review.'' Stephen McNeilly Portrait

In 2010 he curated ''Fourteen Interventions'', a multi-disciplinary site responsive exhibition at Swedenborg house, which included work by

Jeremy Deller Jeremy Deller (born 30 March 1966) is an English people, English conceptual, video and installation artist. Much of Deller's work is Collaboration, collaborative; it has a strong political aspect, in the subjects dealt with and also the Idealiz ...

, Bridget Smith,

Iain Sinclair Iain Sinclair FRSL (born 11 June 1943) is a writer and filmmaker. Much of his work is rooted in London, recently within the influences of psychogeography. Biography Education Sinclair was born in Cardiff in 1943. From 1956 to 1961, he was educate ...

Ben Judd Ben Judd (born October 25, 1974) is an American translator, producer, and agent. He is a former Capcom employee. Judd is an American and lives in Japan and became Capcom's first non-Japanese producer. Judd has had several voice acting cameos in ...

and

Olivia Plender Olivia Plender (born 1977) is an artist based in London and Stockholm. She is known for her installations, performances, videos, and comics. Life and career Plender was born in London London is the capital and List of urban areas in th ...

. In 2016, with Bridget Smith, he co-curated ''Now it is Permitted: 24 Wayside Posters'', an exhibition of posters designed by Bridget Smith and Fraser Muggeridge which included contributions by

Cornelia Parker Cornelia Ann Parker (born 14 July 1956) is an English visual artist, best known for her sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physica ...

Fiona Banner Fiona Banner (born 1966), also known as The Vanity Press is a British artist. Her work encompasses sculpture, drawing, installation and text, and demonstrates a long-standing fascination with the emblem of fighter aircraft and their role within cul ...

Marina Warner Dame Marina Sarah Warner, (born 9 November 1946) is an English historian, mythographer, art critic, novelist and short story writer. She is known for her many non-fiction books relating to feminism and myth. She has written for many publicatio ...

, Chloe Aridjis,

Ali Smith Ali Smith CBE FRSL (born 24 August 1962) is a Scottish author, playwright, academic and journalist. Sebastian Barry described her in 2016 as "Scotland's Nobel laureate-in-waiting". Early life and education Smith was born in Inverness on 24 Au ...

Michael Landy Michael Landy (born 1963) is one of the Young British Artists (YBAs). He is best known for the performance piece installation '' Break Down'' (2001), in which he destroyed all his possessions, and for the ''Art Bin'' project (2010) at the ...

Gavin Turk Gavin Turk (born 1967) is a British artist from Guildford in Surrey, and is considered to be one of the Young British Artists.Tate Modern. (2009)'Pop Life: Art in a Material World' Retrieved 14 August 2012. Turk's oeuvre deals with issues of aut ...

and others. Other exhibitions curated by McNeilly include ''Swedenborg and the English Romantics'', an exhibition of artefacts and artworks by

William Blake William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age. ...

, S T Coleridge,

John Flaxman John Flaxman (6 July 1755 – 7 December 1826) was a British sculptor and draughtsman, and a leading figure in British and European Neoclassicism. Early in his career, he worked as a modeller for Josiah Wedgwood's pottery. He spent several yea ...

Philip James de Loutherbourg Philip James de Loutherbourg RA (31 October 174011 March 1812), whose name is sometimes given in the French form of Philippe-Jacques, the German form of Philipp Jakob, or with the English-language epithet of the Younger, was a French-born Brit ...

and

Emanuel Swedenborg Emanuel Swedenborg (, ; born Emanuel Swedberg; 29 March 1772) was a Swedish pluralistic-Christian theologian, scientist, philosopher and mystic. He became best known for his book on the afterlife, ''Heaven and Hell'' (1758). Swedenborg had ...

exploring conceptual tropes of the 18th century, and ''The Story of Swedenborg in 27 Objects,'' which included items by

Josephine Butler Josephine Elizabeth Butler (' Grey; 13 April 1828 – 30 December 1906) was an English feminist and social reformer in the Victorian era. She campaigned for women's suffrage, the right of women to better education, the end of coverture ...

T E Lawrence Thomas Edward Lawrence (16 August 1888 – 19 May 1935) was a British archaeologist, army officer, diplomat, and writer who became renowned for his role in the Arab Revolt (1916–1918) and the Sinai and Palestine Campaign (1915–1918 ...

, D T Suzuki,

Vernon Watkins Vernon Phillips Watkins (27 June 1906 – 8 October 1967) was a Welsh poet and translator. His headmaster at Repton was Geoffrey Fisher, who became Archbishop of Canterbury. Despite his parents being Nonconformists, Watkins' school experiences ...

amongst others. His long-standing interest in the work of

informs much of his work and he has published on writers as diverse as

Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champ ...

and

Arthur Cravan Arthur Cravan (born Fabian Avenarius Lloyd; 22 May 1887 – disappeared 1918) was a Swiss writer, poet, artist and boxer. He was the second son of Otho Holland Lloyd and Hélène Clara St. Clair. His brother Otho Lloyd was a painter and photog ...

. In 2011 he set up the ''Swedenborg Archive'' imprint, a project which has included contributions from the writers

Peter Ackroyd Peter Ackroyd (born 5 October 1949) is an English biographer, novelist and critic with a specialist interest in the history and culture of London. For his novels about English history and culture and his biographies of, among others, William ...

Homero Aridjis Homero Aridjis (born April 6, 1940) is a Mexican poet, novelist, environmental activist, journalist and diplomat known for his rich imagination, poetry of lyrical beauty, and ethical independence. Family and early life Aridjis was born in Contepe ...

, A S Byatt,

J. M. G. Le Clézio Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio (; 13 April 1940), usually identified as J. M. G. Le Clézio, of French and Mauritian nationality, is a writer and professor. The author of over forty works, he was awarded the 1963 Prix Renaudot for his novel ''Le P ...

, Ken Worpole,

and

Brian Catling Brian Catling (23 October 1948 – 26 September 2022) was a British sculptor, poet, novelist, film maker and performance artist. He was educated at North East London Polytechnic and the Royal College of Art. He held the post of Professor of Fi ...

Tomas Tranströmer Tomas Gösta Tranströmer (; 15 April 1931 – 26 March 2015) was a Swedish poet, psychologist and translator. His poems captured the long Swedish winters, the rhythm of the seasons and the palpable, atmospheric beauty of nature. Tranströmer's ...

and the publisher

Book Works Book Works is a London-based publisher of books on contemporary visual arts, and print studio specialising in bookbinding, letterpress printing, boxmaking, and printmaking. Established in 1984, it has "the mission to disseminate visual art practice ...

. As series editor of the ''Journal of the Swedenborg Society'' he has produced a number of volumes exploring the intellectual and cultural influence of Swedenborg including ''Between Method and Madness'', ''The Arms of Morpheus'', ''In Search of the Absolute'' and ''On the True Philosopher''. Notable contributors to the ''Journal'' include the poet Czeslaw Milosz and the Cambridge linguist

John Chadwick John Chadwick, (21 May 1920 – 24 November 1998) was an English linguist and classical scholar who was most notable for the decipherment, with Michael Ventris, of Linear B. Early life, education and wartime service John Chadwick was born at ...

. Annalisa Volpone has described the ''Journal'' as a 'mapping of the impact of Swedenborg's thought on the western literary ''imaginaire'' from romanticism to contemporary times'. McNeilly is a founding editor of Dedecus Press, an

interdisciplinary Interdisciplinarity or interdisciplinary studies involves the combination of multiple academic disciplines into one activity (e.g., a research project). It draws knowledge from several other fields like sociology, anthropology, psychology, ec ...

and collaborative publishing project, and is the overseeing editor for the
Dedecus Dictionary
' and the
Dedecus Picture Archive
'. Between 2004 and 2012 he was a visiting lecturer in art, Philosophy and

Critical Theory A critical theory is any approach to social philosophy that focuses on society and culture to reveal, critique and challenge power structures. With roots in sociology and literary criticism, it argues that social problems stem more from soci ...

at the University of Creative Arts (Canterbury).

Selected works

* 2021 The Story of Swedenborg in 27 Objects (exhibition and catalogue), Curator and Author, London. * 2020 On the Conjugial Angel, an essay by A S Byatt (book), Editor. * 2019 An Evening of Dreams, with contributions by Homero Aridjis, Chloe Aridjis, Eva Hoffman, Darian Leader, Tom McCarthy and Selina Mills (book). Editor. * 2018 Swedenborg and the English Romantics (exhibition), Curator, London. * 2018 In Celebration Of Tomas Tranströmer, with contributions by Robin Robertson, Tomas Tranströmer, Per Wåstberg and others (book). Editor. * 2017 Ad caput capitas: the lost skulls of Swedenborg, with Iain Sinclair and Colin Dickey (exhibition), Curator, London. * 2016 Now it is Permitted: 24 Wayside Posters (exhibition), co-curated with Bridget Smith, London. * 2013 Swimming to Heaven: The Lost Rivers of London, an essay by Iain Sinclair, (book), Editor. * 2013 Philosophy, Literature, Mysticism: an anthology of essays on the thought and influence of Emanuel Swedenborg (book), Editor. * 2012 Several Clouds Colliding (book), by Brian Catling and Iain Sinclair (book). Editor. * 2012 D T Suzuki: manuscripts and letters (exhibition), Curator, London. * 2012 Memoirs of Swedenborg (book), Editor. * 2011 Blake's London: the Topographic Sublime, an essay by Iain Sinclair (book), Editor. * 2010 Heaven, Hell and Other Places (documentary), Executive Producer, * 2010 Fourteen Interventions (exhibition), Curator, London. * 2010 Introducing the Mystic: an essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson (publication), Editor/author * 2010 Art lands on Alien Landscape (exhibition/catalogue), Margate. * 2008 Dedecus: A Dictionary Pt, 2 (publication), Author. * 2008 Dedecus: A Dictionary Pt, 1 (publication), Author. * 2008 Maintenant, Pt, 1 (publication) Editor/Author. * 2007 Rub-a-dub-dub (three person exhibition with Jacob Cartwright and Nick Jordan) Switzerland. * 2007 The Arms of Morpheus (book), Editor. * 2006 George Berkeley's Commonplace Book (book), Editor. * 2005 Vertigo Gallery (solo exhibition), London. * 2005 Between Method and Madness (book), Editor. * 2004 in Search of the Absolute (book), Editor. * 2002 on the True Philosopher (book), Editor. * 2001 on the Translator and the Latin Text; essays by

(book), Editor. * 1996 Bonnington Gallery, The Margaret Bryan Award, (two person exhibition with Lotte Hammer) Nottingham.

External links

* Dedecus Press http://dedecuspress.com/ * The Swedenborg Society http://www.swedenborg.org.uk/home

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McNeilly, Stephen 1968 births Living people English writers English artists English book publishers (people)