Dr David Steans is Senior Lecturer on the MA Fine Art course. In 2019 he completed his PhD in Fine Art at University of Leeds. He is also a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Steans is an artist and writer, working primarily with writing, moving image, sound, music, installation and collage. He often uses the voice/’the voice’ as a material and a medium.

His approach involves narrative, storytelling, and reality/fiction ‘blurring’, working towards something that could be understood as meta-horror. His method involves a kind of ‘versioning’, whereby projects and ideas are developed through successive iterations. This is a process he associates with the mutations and spectral residues of genre dynamics.

Some of his specific interests/ambitions in respect of genre include conjuring a sense of (genre) horror in and around the technologies, media and processes of cultural production (such as writing and filmmaking).

Artefacts

Steans, D. (2018) From the Lounge. Hastings: Deptford X.

Articles

Pandhal, H. and Steans, D. (2020) ‘Hardeep’s Egg’, Journal of Writing in Creative Practice, 13 (1), pp. 9–11.

Book Sections

Steans, David. (2021) Curtainz. In: J. Sutcliffe, ed., Documents of Contemporary Art: Magic. MIT Press and Whitechapel Gallery.

Steans, D. (2019) Gravediggers. In: D. Holmes and S. Kivland, eds., The Graveside Orations of Carl Einstein. Ma Bibliothèque.

Steans, D. (2014) Letter #2 (Gratitude). In: P. Becker, A. Cecchetti and F. Pedraglio, eds., Cadavere Quotidiano. Project X Foundation.

Creative Projects

Steans, D. (2021) Curtainz.

Steans, D. (2019) Necrotic Biography Room.

Exhibitions

Trio Exhibition. (2021) 3 Animates. 1 Thoresby Street, Nottingham. 12 – 27 June 2021.

Group Exhibition. (2021) Come Together. Workplace Gallery, Gateshead/London [online]. 18 February – 20 March 2021.

Group Exhibition. (2020) Re-shift, Re-calibrate. Pavilion, Leeds [online]. 10 – 17 August 2020.

Group Exhibition. (2019) Ecstatic Rituals. Humber Street Gallery, Hull. 7 September – 20 October 2019.

Group Exhibition. (2018) DEPTFORD X 2018. Platform Commission, Deptford X Festival, London. 21 – 30 September 2018.

Group Exhibition. (2018) AS MUCH ABOUT FORGETTING. Viborg Kunsthal, Denmark. 7 September – 25 November 2018.

Pandhal, H. and Steans, D. (2018) Lecture Theatre. CAVE, University of Leeds. 3 – 19 May 2018.

Group Exhibition. (2018) MANTEL. Copperfield Gallery, London. 16 February – 10 March 2018.

Group Exhibition. (2017) Medieval City-One. 2 Queens, Leicester. 17 June – 2 September 2017.

Group Exhibition. (2016) Mould Map 6 - TERRAFORMERS. Bonington Gallery, Nottingham Trent University. 17 September – 21 October 2016.

Group Exhibition. (2016) Radiophrenia Festival 2016. Radio Broadcast, Glasgow. 29 August – 11 September 2016.

Group Exhibition. (2016) SNAKE HORSE GOAT MONKEY: 4 Years of The School of the Damned. Guest Projects, London. 25 May – 30 May 2016.

Group Exhibition. (2015) A BRITISH ART SHOW. Meyohas, Manhattan. 23 October – 13 November 2015.

Group Exhibition. (2015) Display Show. Eastside Projects, Birmingham. 19 September – 12 December 2015.

Group Exhibition. (2015) I’MTen. IMT Gallery, London. 17 September – 2 October 2015.

Performances

Steans, D. (2019) Award-winning Scarecrow. Fieldwork, Haarlem Artspace. 24 August 2019.

Steans, D. (2018) Gruesome FX. Triangle Arts, Brooklyn. 23 May 2018.

Steans, D. (2017) Crime World. The Tetley, Leeds. 29 March 2017.

Steans, D. (2017) Hiddy Sculpture. Stories from the Sculpture City, Henry Moore Institute, Leeds. 8 February 2017