Andre Stitt (b. 1958) grew up in Belfast, Northern Ireland and lives and works in Cardiff Wales. He studied at Ulster Polytechnic and Belfast College of Art & Design, Ulster University 1976-1980. He is currently Professor of Fine Art at Cardiff School of Art & Design, Cardiff Metropolitan University, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Art.
Working almost exclusively as an action-based and interdisciplinary artist from 1976-2002, Stitt gained an international reputation for cutting edge, provocative and politically challenging work. A predominate theme in his artistic output is that of communities and their dissolution often relating to trauma, conflict and art as a redemptive proposition. His ‘live’ performance and installation works have been presented at major museums, galleries and sites specific throughout the world.
Although Stitt’s reputation was founded on his international career as a live artist, he originally trained as a painter in his home town of Belfast. In 2008 he was awarded a major Creative Wales Award to develop his painting practice and has since radically changed his output to painting. His recent works are inspired by architectural blue plans and the structural and emotive qualities of the post war brutalist housing estate where he grew up.
Stitt's work has been included in exhibitions at PS1, New York 2000, Venice Biennale 2005, Baltic Contemporary Art Centre, England 2005, Bangkok Art & Culture Centre, 2008, Galerie Lehtinen, Berlin 2011, John Moores 2012, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.
Solo exhibitions include Howard Gardens Gallery, Cardiff (2000); Le Lieu Centre en Art Actuel, Quebec (2001); Chapter, Cardiff (2005); The Drawing Centre, New York, (2006); Artspace, Sydney, Australia (2007); Spacex Gallery, England (2008); The Lab, New York, (2009); MCAC, Northern Ireland (2009), GTgallery, Belfast, N. Ireland (2010); Howard Gardens Gallery, Cardiff (2010); St Paul St. Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand (2011); St David’s Hall, Cardiff (2012); Warning Contemporary Art, Belfast, (2012); Oriel Myrddin, Carmarthen, Wales (2013); Maesglas, Wales, 2013, and Leeds College of Art Gallery (2013).
