TRIBUTES have been paid to an 'influential and provocative' artist who was the co-founder of a local art centre.

Stuart Bastik, an artist, co-founder and co-director of Art Gene with Maddi Nicholson, died on July 11.

Born in Beverley in Yorkshire, he developed an interest and skills in metal and woodwork with his grandfather and his first job was on the factory floor.

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He went to Birmingham University in his 20s and graduated with a degree in sculpture.

In 1990-91, he won a Northern Arts residency to work with Barrow Borough Council. He worked with trainee welders in VSEL on the commission.

The Council gave him a room in the then nearly derelict Old Technical College on Abbey Road. Despite having all his tools stolen from there, Stuart developed a love for and affinity with Barrow.

Stuart on a local research walkStuart on a local research walk (Image: Art Gene)

Maddi Nicholson, a Cumbrian artist, had arrived in Barrow on a Welfare State International residency in 1989-90. She and Stuart met one another and Julie Hammerton, who worked as the Project Manager at WSI, and the three of them eventually created Art Gene in 2002, creating studios and a gallery in the Old Technical College - now the Nan Tait Centre.

Both Stuart and Maddi made artwork on a large scale, building influential careers by winning residencies around the country and overseas.

They worked individually and also as Nicholson Bastik.

In 1996, marking the Year of Visual Art in the UK, and before the days of PVC coverings, they handpainted 8 large Brady articulated lorries and installed them outside London's Tate Gallery.

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A commission for the Liverpool European Capital of Culture saw Nicholson Bastik install a large-scale work in St George's Hall, 'A Little Bit of What You Fancy Does You Good'.

Jo Reilly of Art Gene explained that Stuart was most proud of the Roker Pods for Sunderland Council, the series of hand-drawn Seldom Seen Maps of the Furness area, and his most personal project, his 'beautifully designed', off-grid, sustainably powered home at Sandscale, where he passed away on with Maddi and his partner Ruth by his side.

Liz Pugh, Creative Producer of Salford-based arts company, Walk the Plank said: "Stuart was an influential and provocative artist and art activist.

"Barrow was enriched by him in so many ways."