Today we’d like to introduce you to Stephanie Neville

Hi Stephanie, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?

I am a contemporary conceptual artist (b. 1973 Pretoria, South Africa)
and have been residing in the United Arab Emirates since 1999. Working as a full-time artist since 2005, my interest developed with a great love for fiber and textile arts. I use traditional handmade techniques to express a feminist identity and delve into the complexities of diaspora, memory and absence drawn from my personal relationships. I earned my Master of Visual Arts (Cum Laude) from the University of South Africa (2019) and started my own company Stephanie Neville Projects in 2022.

I tend to divide my career into the ‘personal’ and ‘commercial’. In my personal work I draw entirely from my personal experiences, investigating my responses to my life, family and the world around me. The confessional nature of my work is evidence of this self-exploration and the belief that experiences are not unique and there is an audience out there that can identify with my experiences. It confirms that I am not alone and there is a sense of kinship and belonging. Working predominantly in textiles and related craft techniques such as embroidery, knitting and macrame, I tend to focus on a feminist stance in my art making. I connote these traditional techniques with love, nurture, and care – something I learned from my mother and grandmother. Conceptually I tend to deal with absence. As an expat living remote from family, and with a frequently traveling partner, I tend to find a lot of time for self-reflection and attempts to locate myself and investigate my belonging.

My commercial career started during 2017 when I created my first embroidery portraits project for a hotel in Dubai, through the guidance of an art consultant. Since then, I have grown my connections within the art consulting and interior design industry locally and internationally and found the need to create my own company in 2022. I am fortunate to have found a niche in the market with the textile arts and have been constantly creating artworks for hotels and commercial projects in the UAE and in the GCC region (KSA, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain). The region is in constant expansion and providing opportunities for growth and development. I am excited to push my boundaries, expand my work and capabilities.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?

The biggest challenge I am facing at the moment is to be ‘official’: all the red tape that comes with owning your own business. I am outsourcing certain aspects and it’s making my life easier. I would love to hire an administrative assistant and add to that a social media assistant. It seems like these days just being an artist, making art, is not enough and it can become quite overwhelming to keep up with these technological era we are in (or am I just getting that old?).
My next challenge is to decide if I want to continue to grow my commercial business, and how to go about this. I am facing logistical problems such as not having enough space for producing and storage. I need a larger studio and more artist assistants to keep up with the changing and increasing demands. Albeit not a bad problem to have, it is a decision I need to make about where I really want my career to go and how to position myself as an artist.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?

I was always a painter but I experimented with embroidery in 2012 which initiated my obsession with fiber and textile arts. The UAE is still a rather small market and I was able to find this niche and establish myself specializing in textile -based art.
Being mostly self-taught in the field, it is exciting to be constantly experimenting, learning and evolving. I am very proud of the fact that my name is being recognizes among my Clients. I have been working for many years with some established art consultants, but have been approached by a few new Clients recently, which is a nice ego boost. I am very proud of the artworks that I have created and it is incredible that some of the projects I have been a part of, the Clients have been nominated or won industry awards.

Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?

Collaboration is key and there is a trust being built between myself and the art consultants/ Clients I work with. There is no room for dramas or egos, and I pride myself of having open and honest relationships. I am very lucky to have had the support of amazing consultants and it really does take teamwork to sometimes produce a commissioned piece particularly for prestigious locations.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.stephanieneville.com
• Instagram: @stefneville @stephanieneville_projects
• Facebook: Stephanie Neville ART

Image Credits

Drawdeck
Capsule Arts
Juliet Dunne