Bio
Steph Goodger lives and works between Bordeaux, France, and the UK. Goodger was a prize winner in the prestigious John Moores Painting Prize 2020, having previously exhibited in JMPP 2016 and 2004. She was selected for the Brewers Towner International, in 2022, an exhibition and prize at Towner Eastbourne. Next year she has a solo exhibition in the Spring with De Queeste Art, Belgium.
Goodger has participated in a variety of prizes and awards, such as, The Creekside Open, at APT Gallery, London; The London Group Open, at Cello Factory, and Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries, London, and the Grand Prix de l’Institut Bernard Magrez, Bordeaux.
Goodger exhibits widely in the UK and internationally. History’s Extras at Cornerstone Gallery, Liverpool Hope University, 2018; Cherry Time at Elysium Gallery, 2016; I'd Still Like to See the Governor... University for the Creative Arts Gallery, Folkestone Triennial, 2014.
In France, Goodger has featured in three public exhibitions in the Bordeaux area: the Forum des arts et de la Culture, Talence, and the Pôle Culture, Lormont, in 2020, and La Chapelle Saint-Loup, Saint Loubès, in 2017. Also, a solo show at Christies International, Bordeaux, in 2020.
Goodger enjoys collaborating on group projects. Walking in Two Worlds, involving twenty-one painters, is co-created with Elysium Gallery, Swansea. Presented so far at Oceans Apart Gallery, Manchester, CARN Gallery, Caernarfon, Wales, in 2021, and Volcano, Swansea in 2022.
Exhibitions :
De Queeste Art, Belgium. Lusitania, Solo exhibition. April-May (2023)
Cornerstone Gallery, Liverpool Hope University. Carried on the Wind. Solo exhibition. March-April (2023)
School Gallery, London. Solo exhibition February-March (2023)
Brewers Towner International, Towner Eastbourne, Exhibition of 20 selected artists and prize. (2022-23)
Walking in Two Worlds. Volcano, Swansea. (2022) Oceans Apart Gallery, Manchester and CARN Gallery, Caernarfon, Wales (2021)
A group exhibition, co-created with Julian Rowe and curated by Jonathan Powell, Director of Elysium Gallery Swansea Instagram: @walking_in_two_worlds
John Moores Painting Prize (2020) (2016) et (2004) (Runner-up Prize Winner 2020) Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, in association with the Liverpool Biennial
Christie's International, Bordeaux Solo exhibition, 2020
Histoire(s) de peinture (The History (ies) of Painting) 2020 Two person exhibition, Le Pôle Culture, Lormont (Bordeaux), France
Où tombe l’ombre (Where the Shadow Falls) 2020 Two person exhibition, Le Forum des arts et de la Culture, Talence (Bordeaux)
Every Day, Group exhibition, Terrace Gallery, London, 2020
Creekside Open 2019 and 2015, APT Galleries, London
Two-Fold, Group exhibition, Oceans Apart Gallery, Manchester 2019 (group)
Les Peuples Figurants / History's Extras 2018 Solo exhibition, Cornerstone Gallery, Liverpool Hope University,
Discerning Eye 2017 and 2015
Le Grand Prix de l’Institut Bernard Magrez, Bordeaux, 2017
The London Group Open 2017, 2015 and 2013 Winsor and Newton Painting Prize Winner 2013 The Cello Factory, London
Nos Royaumes Perdus (Our Lost Kingdoms) 2017 Two person exhibition, La chapelle, Saint Loubès, France. Public exhibition
National Open Art Prize 2014 South East Prize Winner, Somerset House, London
Threadneedle Painting Prize The Mall Galleries, London 2012
BEEP Wales Internationale Painting Prize 2012 People’s Prize winner Elysium Gallery, Swansea
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