Nicholas Stedman

My work has always been driven by movement. Even in my early landscape studies I searched for motion—water, foliage, sky. Once I learned to draw the figure, the moving human body became central to what I do. In the 1980s I painted pedestrians in urban architecture and punk musicians performing in tight city spaces. Important shifts came from watching the cliff divers in Nice and discovering Charles Atlas’s films of Merce Cunningham’s dancers. From the 1990s onward I began working directly with dancers and contemporary circus artists, focusing on bodies in motion—falling, spinning, and moments of jeopardy.

The works shown here reflect two of my main themes.
The first is the moving figure, explored through multifigure compositions of divers and circus artists suspended in electric yellow or deep blue environments, or positioned over horizons between sea and sky or land and sky. These horizons may tilt to disturb equilibrium. The figures are organised in contrasting ways: from geometric unisons where each body seems free yet the group is bound into precise, almost mathematical structures, to chaotic arrangements of falling figures. Their silhouettes create a kinetic script, like hieroglyphs formed by shifting choreographies.

The sec...

I was born in the UK in 1953. Although I painted throughout my teens—guided first by the Scottish artist Nell Todd and later while studying at Cambridge University, where I exhibited at King’s College and Kettle’s Yard—I initially followed a scientific path. After graduating, I moved to France, completed a PhD, and worked as a biochemist while studying drawing at the Paris municipal art school on the Place des Vosges.

In 1981 I left science entirely to focus on art. I continued my training with Nicolas Wacker at the École des Beaux-Arts, studying the materials and structure of painting, and then spent two years working under the critical guidance of Zao Wou-Ki at the École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs. After a year in Rome, I became a full-time artist in 1982, working in Paris until 2004, when I moved to Sicily. I now live and work in Palermo.

Solo Exhibitions

Polittici – Visioni Tattili, Centro d'Arte Raffaello, Palermo, Italy

Le Grand Bleu, Centro d’Arte Raffaello, Palermo, Italy

Chorus, Galerie Ferama, Paris, France

Plongeurs, Danseurs et Acrobats, Galerie de la Maison, Angoulême, France

L’Art et la Bannière, Hôpital Bretonneau, Paris, France

Upside Down, Galerie Art et Littérature, Paris, France

Solo Show – Air France Industries, Orly, France

Storyboard, Spazioarte Pisanello, Verona, Italy

Histoire de Corps, Galerie Jacob 1, Paris, France

Kent Landscapes, Nevill Gallery, Canterbury, Kent, UK

Artiste Invité, Ville de Vitry-Châtillon, France

Le Corps en Danger II, Galerie Le Monde de l’Art, Paris, France

Body Language, Espace Croix Baragnon, Toulouse, France

Corps en Danger, Galerie Le Monde de l’Art, Paris, France

Light as a Feather, Galerie Barrouyer, Paris, France

Solo Exhibition, Galleria Bottega di Emilio, Via Margutta 86, Rome

Group Exhibitions

Identità, Galleria Raffaello, Palermo, Italy

Arte Padova 2022, Fiera di Padova, Italy

Artistes de la Galérie, Galerie Sonia Monti, Paris, France

Meditation Medication, Asia Museum of Modern Art, Taiwan

Frammenti di Sicilia, Spazioarte le Sicile, Siracusa, Italy

Group Show, Galerie Marion Zimmermann, ...