Stephen Chambers RA

I Bite & Sting Wolf
I-Bite-&-Sting-Caterpillar
I-Bite-&-Sting-Snake
I-Bite-&-Sting-Skorpion
I-Bite-&-Sting-Shark
I-Bite-&-Sting-Seaurchin
I-Bite-&-Sting-Mosquito
I-Bite-&-Sting-Lion

‘I Bite & Sting… (and You’d Better Believe it)’

‘I Bite & Sting… (and You’d Better Believe it)’. Hopefully laced with levity, they are my personal riposte to the world in our current wonky times, the toil and the strains. They were drawn in Berlin since the commencement of lockdown (March 1) and printed in London by Nutmeg Editions. I intend them to be an affirmative, jocular growl at those things which block our path.

12 animals that are likely to bite back should their tail be tweaked. They are, in that sense, all self-portraits.

They are currently being exhibited as part of Stephen Chambers’ exhibition ‘The Court of Redonda’ at Hastings Contemporary, Dec. 10 – February 28, 2021.

The Fashion House

The Fashion House (Givenchy), 76 x 56 cm, Lithograph
The Fashion House (McQueen), 76 x 56 cm, Lithograph
The Fashion House (Stella McCartney), 76 x 56 cm, Lithograph
The Fashion House (Yves Saint Laurent), 76 x 56 cm, Lithograph

The Fashion House, Set of 4 lithographs, Edition of 25, Printed at Nutmeg Editions, 2019

The Talking Trees Of England: The Old Rascal, Three plate colour etching on 300gm Hahnemuhle paper, 33 x 28 cm, Edition: 40, 2018
The Talking Trees Of England: The Tears Of Lament, Four plate colour etching on 300gm Hahnemuhle paper, 33 x 28 cm, Edition: 40, 2018
The Talking Trees Of England: The High Court Judge, Three plate colour etching on 300gm Hahnemuhle paper, 33 x 28 cm, Edition: 40, 2018
The Talking Trees Of England: Three Naughty Girls, Three plate colour etching on 300gm Hahnemuhle paper, 33 x 28 cm, Edition: 40, 2018

The Talking Trees Of England

Ms Behavin', 33 x 28 cm, Two plate colour etching with tea stained Gambi chine colle, 2018
Mr Meanor, 33 x 28 cm, Two plate colour etching with tea stained Gambi chine colle, 2018

Student Life

Casanova Selling The National Lottery To Catherine The Great, Two plate etching with chine-collé printed on 300gm Hahnemuhle paper, 38 x 30 cm  Edition: 25, 2018

Casanova Selling The National Lottery To Catherine The Great, Two plate etching with chine-collé printed on 300gm Hahnemuhle paper, 38 x 30 cm  Edition: 25, 2018

Ringtone, 55 x 62,5 cm, Five-colour lithograph with 24ct gold leaf, 2017, POA

Ringtone, 55 x 62,5 cm, Five-colour lithograph with 24ct gold leaf, 2017, POA

Dúr Dum, 22 x 18 cm, Etching with gold leaf on Somerset paper, Edition of 25, 2015, POA
My Friend, the Tree, 22 x 18 cm, Etching on Somerset paper, Edition of 25, 2015, POA
Horse & Parent, 22 x 18 cm, Etching on Somerset paper, Edition of 25, 2015, POA
Cow & Brother, 22 x 18 cm, Etching with gold leaf on Somerset paper, Edition of 25, 2015, POA

Etchings from the series ‘Stupid Stupid’

(Prelude to) The Exploration of America, 56 x 70 cm, Six-colour lithograph with chine collé on Somerset paper, Edition of 25 , 2015, POA

(Prelude to) The Exploration of America, 56 x 70 cm, Six-colour lithograph with chine collé on Somerset paper, Edition of 25 , 2015, POA

Stephen Chambers RA

Elected as an RA in 2005, Stephen is an experienced printmaker. He works with a variety of printing techniques, evident in our most recent publications with him. His work is held in both public and private collections around the world, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, USA; The British Museum, UK; Arts Council Collection, UK and The Victoria and Albert Museum, UK. In 2014 Stephen had a large survey show of his work at Pera Museum in Istanbul in collaboration with the Royal Academy of Arts, London. This exhibition used his monumental print work titled ‘The Big Country’ – a group of screenprints building up a tableau of 4 x 19m – as a point of arrival from which to look back at the work leading to it. He will be putting on another survey show that opens at the Venice Biennale 2017 in the Palazzo Dandolo and then moves to the new Heong Gallery at Downing College, Cambridge in 2018.

‘(Prelude to) The Exploration of America’ also takes its cue from ‘The Big Country’. The American Midwest has been a recurring theme in Stephen’s work. This print looks at human intimacy in the same breath as settlers exploring new lands, an idea with some of its origins in the poem ‘To His Mistress Going To Bed’ by John Donne.

Stephen describes the series of etchings called ‘Stupid, Stupid’ as “undisciplined, visual ramblings, wantonly playing with whimsy”. Dúr means stupid in Irish and Dum, stupid in Scandinavian languages. This ongoing series, comparable in feel with some of his previous intaglio print series, is less beholden to a central theme. These “meanderings” lend the prints a playful demeanour – trees and cows happily become protagonists and nothingness is animated by rich gold leaf patterns. They have a quality that belies their actual size, making little prints big.