Untitled drawing stephen park Untitled-22

Stephen Park (born 1962) is a British artist and comic performer. He was briefly associated with the Young British Artists (YBAs) in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and included in the seminal Freeze show.

Life and work

Stephen Park was born in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

and grew up in Newcastle where he attended Bath Lane College of Art (1981–82). He moved to

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

in 1982 where he attended

Goldsmiths College Goldsmiths, University of London, officially the Goldsmiths' College, is a constituent research university of the University of London in England. It was originally founded in 1891 as The Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute by the Wor ...

(1982–1985) and then the

Slade School of Fine Art The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...

(1985–1987). Early in his career he was included in exhibitions at the

Institute of Contemporary Arts The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) is an artistic and cultural centre on The Mall in London, just off Trafalgar Square. Located within Nash House, part of Carlton House Terrace, near the Duke of York Steps and Admiralty Arch, the ICA c ...

and the

Serpentine Gallery The Serpentine Galleries are two contemporary art galleries in Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, Central London. Recently rebranded to just Serpentine, the organisation is split across Serpentine South, previously known as the Serpentine Gallery, ...

."85°Show" reviewed in the Observer newspaper 11 August 1985 by Tim Hilton He was one of the artists in the exhibition Freeze curated by Damien Hirst in 1988. He subsequently distanced himself from the

YBA The Young British Artists, or YBAs—also referred to as Brit artists and Britart—is a loose group of visual artists who first began to exhibit together in London in 1988. Many of the YBA artists graduated from the BA Fine Art course at Goldsm ...

s and consequently remains relatively unknown. In the early 1990s he returned to the

for two years as the

Henry Moore Henry Spencer Moore (30 July 1898 – 31 August 1986) was an English artist. He is best known for his semi- abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art. As well as sculpture, Moore produced ...

Fellow. In 1998, he exhibited drawings and sculpture at the Richard Salmon Gallery. Since 2003 he has performed in the South West of England as a comedian and stand-up poet, including appearances at the

Port Eliot Port Eliot in the parish of St Germans, Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, is the ancestral seat of the Eliot family, whose present head is Albert Eliot, 11th Earl of St Germans. Port Eliot comprises a stately home with its own church, which ...

LitFest. He is one of the hosts of a regular poetry/cabaret event in Totnes called One Night Stanza (which was given its name by

Matt Harvey Matthew Edward Harvey (born March 27, 1989), nicknamed The Dark Knight, is an American professional baseball pitcher who is a free agent. He has played in Major League Baseball (MLB). He previously played for the New York Mets, Cincinnati Reds, ...

. Since 1987, Park has been working on a series of abstract drawings. The drawings are made with indian ink,

gouache Gouache (; ), body color, or opaque watercolor is a water-medium paint consisting of natural pigment, water, a binding agent (usually gum arabic or dextrin), and sometimes additional inert material. Gouache is designed to be opaque. Gouache h ...

and typewriter correction fluid on Fabriano paper.

Notes and references

External links

Stephen Park official web site
article by Jessica Berrens, Observer Magazine, 1 June 2008" {{DEFAULTSORT:Park, Stephen 1962 births Living people Alumni of Goldsmiths, University of London English contemporary artists