Stewart Russell was born in Scotland, studied fine art in England and Canada and currently lives and works in Melbourne Australia. He maintains an international profile as a textile designer while working across a range of creative disciplines including curatorial work and a contemporary art practice.
He began working with textiles in 1984, setting up his first print studio in Sri Lanka for Barbara Sansoni. He returned to the UK in 1987 to set up another print studio and lecture at the Scottish College of Textiles. In 1993 he moved to London and designed acclaimed print collections for avant-garde Japanese fashion house Beauty : Beast and London based Joe Casely-Hayford.
In London he became the director of London Printworks, a contemporary arts organisation based in Brixton and developed an international reputation for an exhibition program, commissioning a series of artists and fashion designers to discuss issues through the medium of printed textiles.
Stewart turned London Printworks into
a world class resource where fabrics were, and still are,
developed for high profile UK fashion designers. The list
of designers who’ve
developed work there over the years shows the role London
Printworks now plays, Vivienne Westwood,
Eley Kishimoto, Joe Casely~Hayford, Hussian Chalayan, Jessica
Ogden, Zakee Sharrif …
As a curator he has been responsible for commissioning significant
new work from UK based artists including, Mark Wallinger,
Yinka Shonibare, Bill Woodrow, Sonia Boyce,
Ross Sinclair, Jeremy Deller, David Shrigley, Glen Ligon,
Nathan Coley …
In January 2000 Stewart and long term collaborator Donna O’Brien relocated from London to Melbourne to set-up spacecraft, a textile studio designed to produce men’s and women’s fashion collections and instigate collaborations with contemporary artists.
They first worked together for Barbara Sansoni in Sri Lanka, later in the UK they teamed up again to design and produce film industry and fashion events, including the world premier of the film Trainspotting, Vivienne Westwood’s Anglomania at the Edinburgh Festival and UK premiers for Australian films Strictly Ballroom and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.
Spacecraft regularly works with Australian
based artists including, Kate Daw, Jean Baptiste Apuatimi,
Sally Smart, Jon Campbell, Osmond Kantilla … and
instigates curatorial projects exhibited at, MCA Sydney,
London Printworks, Melbourne Museum, Craft Victoria …
Like spacecraft’s cult men’s wear label, the
womens collection is branded around print concepts and production
techniques developed by Scottish artist Stewart Russell.
Stewart’s print ideas are driven by a fascination with the art of traditional textile design and new directions in contemporary art. Another key to the development of spacecraft collections is New Zealand designer and textile printer Bonnie Ashley who came to spacecraft from London where she was printing for the likes of Eley Kishimoto and Jessica Ogden.
Spacecraft has strong ties with London but does not look far from home for design inspiration, the influences and themes for fashion collections are generated from living and working in Melbourne, Australia.
Another ongoing print influence is the backing cloth from our sample print table. The table is used solely for experimentation and print development and becomes saturated with print ideas and colour tests. The cloth is replaced every 8 weeks and amongst the build up of printed ideas Stewart finds chance compositions.
Bizarrely we now have a waiting list for our backing cloth pieces, prized by art collectors and museums as a chaotic historical record of Stewart Russell’s creative output. Although essentially a by product of the creative process they, perhaps more than any single piece of work, manage to capture the energy of the studio in full flight.
