Stephen Raw (born London 1952) has lived in Manchester for the last thirty years. He has been a self-employed artist and designer since he returned to Britain from two years teaching at the National Arts School in Papua New Guinea.
Stephen’s work is varied, from paintings in exhibitions through to cover designs for Carcanet Press and his commercial lettering for a variety of clients, including leading publishers, architects and design groups throughout Europe. ‘Fundamental to all my artwork’ Stephen says, ‘is a love of language and how that language is given a visual dimension through signs we simply call letters: never-failing sources of inspiration. Letters are images in themselves and, for me, that’s more than enough to be getting on with.’
He has exhibited widely: Germany, Ireland the United States and Italy. One of his paintings, words by Nelson Mandela, is in the collection of the Stiftung Archiv der Akademie der Künste, Berlin. All his book jacket/cover artwork, part of the Carcanet Press archive, is now kept by the John Rylands Research Institute, University of Manchester. In March 2002 St Francis Church of England, Wythenshawe, commissioned him to produce their fortieth anniversary community lettered mural (8 metres square) involving workshops in the Wythenshawe Hospital cystic fibrosis unit, local schools, an old-people’s home, and open days in the (Sir Basil Spence) church building itself.
‘Sweet Sister Death Has Gone Debauched Today’ was exhibited at Parson’s School of Design, New York, in 2001 as part of a Glasgow School of Art travelling exhibition. Stephen is a visiting lecturer in Glasgow, and was for fifteen years a part-time tutor in the Communication Design Department, Manchester Metropolitan University. He occasionally lectures there still.
He is a frequent visitors to the Isles of Mull and Iona. These landscapes have led him to works exhibited here including ‘Kilvickeon’ and ‘Isle of Mull Diary’.