Partridge, Stephen

A founder member of LVA, Partridge was one of the first UK artists to make video artworks in the early 1970s. His early works played with and fore-grounded the formal language of video, the virtual space of the monitor relative to the exhibition space, the relationship between the viewer and the artwork, the art ‘work’ and context. Partridge established the Television Workshop, which offered facilities and support for artists’ production, helping to produce over two hundred and fifty artworks, from 1984-2001.” – J.Hatfield

Stephen Partridge is an academic, media artist and producer. He was in the “landmark” shows of the 1970s including the Video Show at the Serpentine in 1975, the Installation Show at the Tate gallery in 1976, The Paris Biennale in 1977 and the The Kitchen in New York in 1979.

During the eighties he exhibited widely and also became interested in works for broadcast television and was commissioned by Channel 4 television to produce ‘Dialogue for Two Players’ in 1984. With Jane Rigby, he formed Fields and Frames – an arts projects and television production company – which produced the innovative Television Interventions project for Channel 4 in 1990, with nineteen works by artists for television (including his own piece in the series – ‘The Sounds of These Words’. He also co-produced a short series of student and artists work ‘Not Necessarily’ with BBC Scotland for BBC2 network television in 1991.

He has curated a number of influential video shows: Video Art 78 in Coventry; UK TV New York; National Review of Live Art 1988-90; 19:4:90 Television Interventions; and the touring tape packages ‘Made in Scotland I,II’, ‘Semblances’, ‘Passages’. In 2015 he curated David HALL: SITUATIONS ENVISAGED: Richard Saltoun Gallery 17 July—14 August. His seminal artwork Monitor (1974) was acquired by TATE Britain in December 2014 and was on show as part of the permanent collection in A Walk through 500 years of British Art until 2017. He is an Honorary Associate of the National Review of Live Art.

He has worked with the artist and composer David Cunningham, whose sound-works and structural approach has enriched many of his works since 1974. Other major collaborations include the artist Elaine Shemilt on a series of works including the installations Chimera, Rush, Quattro Minuti di Mezzogiorno.

He lectured from 1975 in a number of art colleges, and established the School of Television & Imaging at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design (University of Dundee), where was Professor of Media Art (from 1998) and Dean of Research From 2001-2019).

He is the principal investigator on the research projects REWIND and REWINDItalia which were awarded successive grants in 2004, 2008 and 2011 from the AHRC, and in 2012 the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Currently is also co-investigator on the AHRC-funded European Womens’ Video Art (EWVA) research project, led by his colleague Prof. Elaine Shemilt, and Richard Demarco | The Italian Connection, also funded by the AHRC.

He is currently Professor Emeritus in the Transtechnology Research Group, University of Plymouth

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