Steph Goodger

Steph Goodger is an expressionistic painter who creates large-format works on social history, architecture and literature. Recurring themes include conflict zones, theatres of war, the human experience of conflict and its material, social and individual consequences. Steph also explores the impact of trauma and its many manifestations on earth.

Steph Goodger’s Early Career and Practice

Steph Goodger graduated from the University of Creative Arts in 1995 and received a Masters from Brighton University in 1999. She moved to France in 2004 and currently shares her time between the UK and France. Following extensive research into photographic archives, Steph curates collages, photomontages, watercolour studies and small oil paintings in preparation for her main works.

Life and Death

Usually operating in series, Steph is also interested in reproducing theorist Roland Barthes’ concept of the presence of absence. Although death pervades her work – with many staged in turbulent historical moments, her painting process brings life to her pieces, defying death even when depicting it. Steph, although depicting the past, reshapes it into an object for modern contemplation.

Awards and Exhibitions

The artist was a prize winner at the prestigious John Moores Painting Prize, 2020. The award also shortlisted Steph in 2004 and 2016. Steph has previously featured in the Creekside Open, APT Gallery, London; Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries, London; the Threadneedle Prize; The London Group Open; and Le Grand Prix de l’Institut Bernard Magrez, Bordeaux. In the UK, Steph has participated in solo and collaborative exhibitions such as Two-Fold, Oceans Apart Gallery, Manchester 2019; History’s Extras/Les Peuples Figurants, a major solo project with Cornerstone Gallery, Liverpool. In France, Steph has had two major exhibitions at le Forum des Arts et de la Culture, Talence, and Espace Culturel de Bois Fleuri, Lormont.