Biography
Steph Goodger lives and works between Bordeaux, France, and the UK. She exhibits her paintings in the UK and internationally. Goodger was a prize winner in the prestigious John Moores Painting Prize 2020, Liverpool, having previously exhibited in JMPP 2016 and 2004. She was also selected for the Brewers Towner International 2022, an exhibition and prize at Towner Eastbourne.
In 2023, Goodger had her first solo exhibition with, De Queeste Art, Belgium, entitled, Lusitania. This was followed by her itinerant, solo exhibition, Carried on the Wind, exhibited at Cornerstone Gallery, Liverpool Hope University and then at School Gallery, Folkestone.
Goodger is taking part in Platforms Project, Independent International Art Fair, Athens, with her platform, Pull Back the Curtain, in 26-29 Octobre 2023
Goodger holds a BA (Hons) in Fine Art from the University for the Creative Arts, Surrey (1995) and an MA from Brighton University (1999).
CV
Studies:
Master of Arts in Fine Art: University of Brighton (1999)
BA (Hons) in Fine Art: University for the Creative Arts – The Surrey Institute (1995)
Representation:
School Gallery, Folkestone from 2023
De Queeste Art, Watou, Belgium, from 2023
Tart Gallery, London, from 2023
Exhibitions:
Solo :
Carried on the Wind, solo exhibition. School Gallery, Folkestone, July-October 2023
Lusitania. Solo exhibition.De Queeste Art, Belgium. April-May 2023
Carried on the Wind. Solo exhibition.Cornerstone Gallery, Liverpool. March-May 2023
Christie’s International, Solo Exhibition, Bordeaux. 2020
History’s Extras. Solo exhibition. Cornerstone Gallery, Liverpool. 2018
Duo :
Platforms Project, Independent International Art Fair, Athens. With Bella Easton, representing the platform, Pull Back the Curtain, 26-29 Octobre 2023
Histoire(s) de peinture, Bois Fleuri, Le Pôle Culture, Lormont, with Franck Garcia. 2020
Où tombe l’ombre, Le Forum des arts et de la Culture, Talence, with Jonathan Hindson. 2020
Nos Royaumes Perdus, Le Pôle Culture, La chapelle Saint-Loup, Saint Loubès, with Thomas Panival. 2017
Le Fantôme de la Peinture, Galerie Rez de Chaussée, Bordeaux, with Julian Rowe. 2017
Cherry Time, Elysium Gallery, Swansea, Wales, with Julian Rowe, 2016
I’d Like to See the Governor, Brewery Tap, Folkestone Triennial Fringe, with Julian Rowe, 2014
Group projects, exhibitions and competitions:
Rogue Women II. Rogue Gallery, Manchester. Collective exhibition. May 2023
Tart Factory. Tart Gallery, Park Royal, Design District, London. April 2023
Brewers Towner International, Towner Eastbourne,Collective exhibition, and prize. 2022-23
Walking In Two Worlds, collective exhibition. 2021-22. Oceans Apart Gallery, Manchester; CARN, Caernarfon, Wales; Volcano Theatre Gallery, Swansea.
John Moores Painting Prize, Walker Gallery, Liverpool. 2020 (Prize Winner), 2016 et 2004
Every Day, Terrace Gallery, London. Collective exhibition. 2020
Creekside Open, APT Gallery, London. Exhibition and prize. 2019 et 2015
The London Group Open, The Cello Factory, London. Exhibition and prize. 2017, 2015 et 2013
Two-Fold, Oceans Apart Gallery, Manchester. Collective exhibition. 2019
Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries, London. Exhibition and prize. 2017 et 2015
Grand Prix de l’Institut Bernard Magrez, Bordeaux. 2017
Prizes
John Moores Painting Prize, Walker Gallery, Liverpool. Prize Winner. 2020
National Open Art Prize, Southeast of England Prize. 2014
Windsor and Newton Painting Prize, The London Group Open Exhibition. 2013
Publications, Interviews and Talks
Talk with Q&A, Carried on the Wind (28 mars 2023) The Capstone Theatre, Liverpool Hope University.
Considering Art Podcast (February 2023)
Lusitania: The Abyss, the Abyme and the Proscenium. Steph Goodger (2021) Junction Box 14
Inferno: A Few Thoughts Steph Goodger (2021) Junction Box 16
John Moores Painting Prize 2020: Meet the Prize Winners(2021) 6:37 / 19:52
Elysium Gallery Artist Talk - Steph Goodger (2020)
Statement of Practice
There is a Void..
"There is a Void, outside of Existence, which if enterd into Englobes itself & becomes a Womb…”
William Blake, Jerusalem, Plate 1
In the opening lines of Jerusalem, Blake creates an image of transformation. The Void folds in on itself, enveloping those who step into it. Like some sort of reactive ether.
The painting space is like this, malleable, reactive, capable of great transformative shifts. One kind of space may hold its opposite within itself (like Blake’s Void and womb). A confined interior can allude to the presence of infinite depth, whilst a vast landscape might feel like a shallow theatre set. All is artifice, yet these sorts of movements and seeming contradictions exist quite naturally within our imaginative experience, asleep or awake.
‘Immensity is within us.’ (The Poetics of Space, chapter Intimate Immensity, Gaston Bachelard.)
The phenomenon of space, our physical, emotional, and imaginative experience of it, is at the heart of painterly depiction for me. All events, all narratives, are tied to spaces and play out in them, so that these too, are part of the very fabric of the painting.
Working in series, I draw upon a range of sources, from Social History and literature, the photographic record and architecture. The paintings' subjects swing between interior and landscape, or spaces of inward exploration and outward exploration. Lost spaces are re-imagined, and landscapes shift through time. Absence can be felt in the space where something once was, or through some remaining traces. Also, in a sense of the uninhabitable. Spaces already claimed by ghosts.
Steph Goodger, December 2022