Creator of boxes and constructions, freelance graphic and exhibition designer, book illustrator, typographer, printmaker and teacher, born in Fife, son of a sailor. He was educated there and in Essex. Studied at Edinburgh College of Art, 1947–51, teachers including John Kingsley Cook and Leonard Rosoman, gaining a postgraduate scholarship. Following National Service Stiven was appointed to the art staff of Fife Education Authority in 1954, after which he joined Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen, in 1958. With a chemistry lecturer at Aberdeen University, John Holloway, Stiven created an exhibition called Integration which, based on boxed exhibits, examined the interface between art and science, which was to remain a preoccupation. Stiven was a lecturer in the extra-mural department of Aberdeen University and through the 1970s participated in the Edinburgh-based Demarco Gallery’s experimental Summer School and expeditions exploring Scotland’s cultural heritage.
Text source: 'Artists in Britain Since 1945' by David Buckman (Art Dictionaries Ltd, part of Sansom & Company)