Friday, June 19, 2009

Who are your influences? Steven Alexander

I am familiar with Steven Alexander's work from his blog, website and the show at Denise Bibro Platform, New York City, "Blogpix" (Curated by Joanne Mattera) He is represented by Gremillion & Co. Fine Art, Houston. He lives and works in eastern Pennsylvania.

I love his color.



Lonely Fire 56 x 36 acrylic on canvas Steven Alexander

My work is an exploration of relations that reside in the constant flux of pure sensory events. I am interested in the interaction between the painting and the viewer's imagination and experience; in the painting's catalytic potency - it's potential to generate unspecified mobile meaning.
Color operates in this work and in the world as a kind of pure energy, dynamic, capricious, evocative. The surfaces emphasize the sensual rather than analytical nature of the painting process, and attest to the pervasive presence of time. Within the structures of the work, archetypal relations of male/female, earth/sky, internal/external are inevitably implied; not as opposing forces, but as interdependent aspects of an animate whole. In this sense, the paintings might be regarded as open-ended cosmologies, or as chunks of raw reality, unencumbered.
I am trying to build, out of color and substance, a place for the viewer's consciousness - where unexpected associations and resonances may occur, where past and future merge with the present moment, and the stuff of life, love and desire has corporeal presence - states of being, embodied in paint.
Steven Alexander 2009




Calypso #4 24 x 24 acrylic on canvas Steven Alexander


Steven writes:
This is really hard!

Here are some influences -- in no particular order:

12th century Tantric paintings
Duccio
Giorgione
Henri Matisse
Piet Mondrian
Pierre Bonnard
Mark Rothko
Giorgio Morandi
Agnes Martin
Jasper Johns
Brice Marden
Blinky Palermo
John Cage
James Brown check out this video- (or maybe you meant the painter?)
Ornette Coleman
A few days later I received an email from Steven:
"Twombly!!!.....I forgot Twombly".
(I found a great "undercover" video of Twombly's opening)



Shift #5 12 x 144 acrylic on canvas Steven Alexander

9 comments:

Pamela Farrell said...

Lisa...what a great series of posts you have going here. So fun to read, and follow the links of influences.

Stephanie Clayton said...

i'm very much enjoying these posts, too.

love steven alexander's work. i only just discovered it through his blog and website...i believe originally through joanne mattera's blog. i would be thrilled to see an exhibit of his work.

your blog is wonderful and inspiring.

lisa said...

thanks to both of you

Janet said...

I am really enjoying this series, your work Lisa and what you are sharing as well.

GREAT use of color in the paintings by this featured artist.

Nancy Natale said...

Thank you for these posts, Lisa! I know it's a lot of work to research and link these influences but you are doing a great job - I particularly enjoyed James Brown (and Eddie Murphy doing James Brown).

Steven Alexander's work is just beautiful and he talks about it so intelligently! It's interesting to see him cite so many old masters as influences. Thank you, Steven, for making your work and inspiring us all!

Debra Ramsay said...

Lisa,
Ditto to Pam's comment. I applaud you for giving us all the challenge to think about the hard questions. Knowing where one's inspirations are from, and being able to articulate why is so essential to moving one's work forward instead of lateral or, gulp, directionlessly. (mmm, don't think that's a real word, but you get my idea)

thanks.

Paula said...

Love these paintings!
thanks for posting them.

Joanne Mattera said...

Lisa,
Your blog has gone from 0 to 60 in record time. Good job!

senorita said...

The blog is absolutely fantastic. Lots of great information and inspiration, both of which we all need. Thanks.Contemporary Art