Ben Uri Research Unit

Born: 1948 Flensburg, Federal Republic of Germany

Year of Migration to the UK: 1972

Other name/s: Volker Stoecks

Biography

Artist, architect, and designer, Volker Stox (né Volker Stöecks) was born in 1948 in Flensburg, Federal Republic of Germany. He attended school in Bad Segeberg, Schleswig-Holstein, completing his Abitur in 1969. He subsequently studied architecture at the University of Karlsruhe and during his studies he worked at Weigert & Bauer, a young architectural practice which mostly entered competitions, and which won the Rosenthal Studio Prize in 1971. With their prize money the team travelled to New York City, USA, to meet other German architects and artists living there. This inspired Stox to relocate to a large metropolitan city. On returning to Germany, Stox was awarded a scholarship through the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) to study at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London. He received his AA Diploma in 1974 and then worked at Norman Foster’s London high profile practice from 1974–75. He quickly became established in London, often entering competitions.

However, in 1976 Stox began painting seriously and exclusively, initially using the airbrush technique he had so often employed to illustrate his architectural schemes, gradually progressing to a larger air gun which allowed the use of acrylic paints and larger-scale work. His first London exhibitions, held at Aberbach Fine Art on Saville Row from 1978–81, displayed large figure paintings and portraits, facilitated by Aberbach’s director at the time, Paul Hope. Other notable shows included  London Artists from Germany  held at the newly-completed German Embassy extension building in Belgrave Square (1978) and Culture Shock  at the BEDE Gallery, Jarrow (1979). At this time, the artist began changing the spelling of his birth name, Stöecks, which he regarded as ‘awkward’ with its umlaut (and which could only be expressed as ‘oe’), to the sharper and more memorable ‘Stox’, with which he signed his work from then onwards. Internationally, Stox held a solo show at the Los Angeles Museum of Art in 1981. Afterwards he rented a large studio in London's Soho Wharf, on Clink Street on the south side of the Thames. The building was filled with artists, musicians, filmmakers and photographers and was the location for many wild parties.

Stox returned to West Berlin in 1982 to produce work in his Kreuzberg studio in an intense style, often labelled as ‘neo-expressionist’ (The Economist 80’s Berlin). Back in London he kept a painting studio in Clerkenwell and created a multimedia installation, Around and Around at the Air Gallery on Rosebery Avenue. Around this time he also started to work within the film industry, designing sets for music videos, feature films and television. Initially, this departure was meant only to financially support his art, but it soon became central to his creative life and he remained in the industry for over a decade and a half, working with filmmakers and video artists, designing and co-directing music videos for bands such as Queen, the Cocteau Twins, Simply Red, A-ha, Erasure, Deacon Blue, Aztec Camera, China Crisis, and Simple Minds.

In the past few decades Stox has pivoted again to explore the use of digital media in his practice (Art Cornwall). He currently resides with his partner in Lamorna, Cornwall, England in a house previously occupied by Surrealist painter, John Tunnard. Stox is a member of the Newlyn Society of Artists (NSA), with whom he exhibits regularly. He has also been actively curating shows for and with other artists in the local art community, including the 2003 exhibition, Exposure and the Revolver series of shows in Penzance in 2008, accompanied by the publication Revolver Art Cornwall. More recently some of his West Berlin period pieces were exhibited at PZ Gallery in Penzance in the exhibition BOSS, held in September 2019. His work is not currently represented in UK public collections.