Stephanie Webber
In my art practice I work in the areas of painting, the moving image and sound. I work by bringing together components, which might appear commonplace, to create spaces where their depth becomes apparent. My paintings are not figurative and my sound pieces and films are not narrative in any conventional sense, but they open up possibilities for the viewer to find their own narratives and meanings.
My paintings are done with egg tempera paint on paper. When I first started painting in this more abstract form, I used a wider range of colours, but over the years I narrowed this down. The limited range of colours may create a surface impression of simplicity, but with time and attention the complexity emerges. The tempera allows me to build up layers of paint, aiming to create a density and richness. Although my paintings are abstract, I feel that I also channel my interactions with the world onto the paper. The painting evolves in an intuitive process of applying marks, reflecting my perceptions of light, shade, colour and space.
My sound pieces also work to build up layers, with different aspects shifting in and out of focus. I try to capture my experiences of observing the world around me, paying attention to the sounds of everyday life, which often go unnoticed as background noise. My work brings together disparate sounds from nature and the built environment, removing these from their usual contexts and placing them in a new setting where their aural qualities can be appreciated.
Like my sound-only pieces, my films tune into aspects of the world that might appear mundane, to reveal their underlying richness. Sounds is often the starting point here too: for example, the crackling of arcing electricity. I then use these to create layers, from which individual sounds can emerge. When working with moving images, I often slow these down to make a space where small changes – for example, leaves moving in the breeze – can reveal themselves from an image that initially appears static. As with my paintings and sound, I aim to create films where close attention uncovers the complexity beneath the surface.
This statement evolved out of a conversation between Stephanie Webber and Cee Sullivan. June 2021
“In relation to durational quality of your work which cuts across form – time not as the great leveller which flattens differences between painting and music, but rather as that which allows them to breathe the same air, exist in the same world, however choked the atmosphere is. from another angle, that of the observer and the demands upon (or gifts to) them to sit in that time, this is one place where the politics of your work emerges. I was thinking about it after we met, that so much of your/our political life exists in a temporality of being already-too-late, in which an urgent response is required to an injustice that is constantly unfolding. against this, the carving out of a different temporality within this, of slow unfurling of meaning and settled attention speaks to the necessity of trying to properly grasp and hold the world to recognise its shapes and its beauty before it melts into air (either through the entropy of time’s arrow, or the evisceration enacted by imperialist capitalism). and this is where your ire around the too-easy interpretation of your colour pieces seems to lie – when we live in a world smeared with blood, there is no need for art to be a mirror of that – so the red of your paintings is not blood, is not even just red, and being able to see it as more than that could be (forgive the grandiosity of this) a step towards a liberated perception, which can see beyond the stained world around us….”
Written by Laurel Uziell following a conversation with Stephanie Webber
February 2026
“… the paintings are beautiful, they have an ephemeral quality, a fleeting moment captured, an emergence/disappearance, changing temperatures…”
Julia Schauerman electro acoustic composer
Artists biography
Stephanie Webber is a London- based artist working in the areas of painting, the moving image and sound. She attended Walthamstow School of Art (1968 – 1969) and Liverpool College of Art (1969 – 1971). She was employed as an ancillary worker at the RCA and subsequently became a student there (1990 – 1992). Stephanie has exhibited her paintings in RCA group shows in Switzerland, and has organised two solo exhibitions of her work in community settings. On leaving the RCA she facilitated art workshops in community settings focusing on older and disabled people including visually impaired people.
The later led to the formation of Art Through Touch a member led organisation with the aim of making art accessible to visually impaired people including working with public galleries and organising art talks and seminars.
Through her art workshops Stephanie met Julia Schauerman, a musician and composers, which led to the formation of the improvised sound/music group Maximum Density of Sound [MDoS] which performed in London and Scotland. This sound work led Stephanie to working with the moving image which has included public showing of films by the Exploding Cinema and Haringey Community Cinema.
Social Media
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stephanie.webber641/?hl=en
Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/user35990786
