Biography
Stephen Forsyth is a Canadian multidisciplinary artist who works across various media, including photography, music, video, film, poetry, and choreography. After graduating from McMaster University and studying at the London School of Economics, Forsyth pursued composing, recording, and performing music in French and Italian, as well as acting in eight of his ten European films, which spanned genres from spaghetti westerns and political thrillers to espionage and romantic comedies. While living in Italy, he also worked as a freelance photojournalist, photographing and interviewing notable artists such as Vittorio De Sica, Valerio Zurlini, Merce Cunningham, John Cage, the Bread and Puppet Theatre, Buffy Sainte-Marie, and Marc Chagall.
Upon relocating to New York City, Forsyth continued to engage in diverse artistic disciplines, enabling him to produce works characterized by a distinctive personal vision. His live music performances, choreography, and performance art have been showcased at venues including the Joyce Theater, the Bottom Line, Reno Sweeney's, the Pyramid, and Danceteria. He co-founded the Rebecca Blake Studio, which featured photographic exhibitions at the Brooklyn Museum, The Nikon House, The Witkin Gallery, and other venues.
Forsyth’s photographic works are held in the permanent collections of prominent institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art (New York City), the George Eastman House Museum of Photography and Film, and the Harvard Film Archives.
His musical compositions and lyrics include “Step out of Love,” choreographed by Margo Sappington and performed globally by Hubbard Street Dance Chicago for ten consecutive years, with a revival for their 25th anniversary. Forsyth has released two albums featuring his music and lyrics, including, for the first time in 25 years, his previously rejected theme song for the James Bond film *Never Say Never Again* (1983), performed by Phyllis Hyman.
Forsyth received a Canada Council Explorations Grant to create his award-winning video work *Passages*. This piece, inspired by his piano compositions, combines visuals, music, and dance in a compelling way, and was featured on PBS's *Alive from Off Center* (1984). Neil Seiling praised it as “one of the rare pieces that aspires to and pulls off a meeting of the performance world with television time and space.”
In recent years, the cult classic *Hatchet for the Honeymoon* (1970), directed by legendary Italian filmmaker Mario Bava and starring Forsyth, has experienced a worldwide resurgence, being remastered and released on Blu-Ray.
With his recent return to photography, Forsyth has integrated the experience gained from his video and musical work. Over the past years, he has exhibited his photographs in Toronto at venues such as the Italian Cultural Institute, Fran Hill Gallery, Awol Gallery, Artscape Triangle Gallery, Redhead Gallery, 401 Richmond’s Art in the Fall, and Nuit Blanche. In 2016, he released a DVD titled *Stephen Forsyth, Piano Solos: Scenes from My Window*, which combines his piano solos, poetry, and photography.
