Stephan is a visual artist and designer. After many years in fashion, he moved into interior, furniture and textile design, ultimately arriving at quilted paintings as his defining practice. He has worked on a wide range of individual and commercial projects across Europe and South-East Asia.
Years in fashion – and in running his own label – instilled in him a discipline and rigour that underpins everything he does, alongside a versatility born of necessity: the ability to move fluidly between roles, acquire new skills quickly and hold many threads at once. It also deepened a material intelligence that goes beyond the visual – an instinctive understanding of quality, texture and craft that informs his work across every discipline.
His years designing residential and commercial interiors across Indonesia sharpened both his compositional eye and his capacity to coordinate complex productions – bringing together architects, craftspeople and makers of every kind around a single cohesive vision. Each project was approached thematically, with as much attention given to atmosphere and narrative as to functionality and pragmatism. A commitment to local sourcing, restoration and the reuse of materials ran throughout, giving each space its own layer of history and character.
His artistic practice as a textile artist adds another layer to this picture. Each quilted painting is entirely hand-made – a process that unfolds over months and demands an almost meditative patience with the small but necessary steps that make up the whole. Working at this scale and pace has deepened his trust in process, in the value of rigour over speed and in the quiet power of work that is made with care and intention.
Artist practice → srpschreiber.comTextile brand → aswelay.com Artist collective → estudiobombi.com