statement

I am a figurative painter who has been focusing on portraits. I paint to find out what I think about the world: to discover the things I do not have words for. I savor the slips of the hand that express one's unconscious feelings. I am interested in the tension between abstraction and realism. I do not want to make an academic copy of the model or a photorealistic illustration. My portraits explore the tension between what needs to be shown and what does not, the seen and the unseen.

I often paint multiple portraits of the same subject. Working with the same model or source photograph over time is part of an effort to get away from academic copying and move towards an image that captures the static of our information age. I am interested in the transition from High Renaissance perspectival form-making (using color and tone to turn forms in space) to a new, flatter type of image modeled on TV, video, and computer screen images as they flicker and break up. The figure, the marks and the ground compete, creating a static interference that interrupts the image. I use collage to further this tension: the collage acts as paint, offering color and tone, yet its original text or image remains visible. This exploration is an extension of my attempts to break down the distinction between figure and ground in my paintings.

bio

born: 1960, New York, New York

education

Slade School of Fine Art, London, MFA 2007
New York Studio School, New York, New York, Certificate 2004
Albany Law School, Albany, New York, JD 1986

selected awards/honors

2012 Juror's Choice, XL-XS: Extra Large & Extra Small Formats, Juror: Barry Nemett, Maryland Federation of Art, Maryland
2006 Short list, Celeste Art Prize
2004 Dean's Prize, New York Studio School, New York

selected publications

2013 Mair, Moray, Geoffrey Stein Uses Collage and Acrylic in His Paintings to Reflect 21st Century Culture, MutantSpace, August 1, 2013, online, http://www.mutantspace.com/geoffrey-stein-paintings-collage-acrylic/
2013 Peripheral ARTeries, February 2013 issue, online, http://issuu.com/artpress/docs/peripheral_arteries_art_review_-_february_2013/1
2012 Hartigan, Philip A., A View From the Easel, Pt. 26, Hyperallergic.com, September 26, 2012, online, http://hyperallergic.com/57523/a-view-from-the-easel-12/
2012 Chayka, Kyle, Summer Fridays for Art in conjunction with Tumblr Storyboard and Artinfo, Artist feature & interview, August 24, 2012, online, http://summerfridays.tumblr.com/post/30101294843/storyboard-summer-art-friday-collagist-geoffrey

selected solo or two-person exhibits

2013 Geoffrey Stein: A Decade of Portraits, UConn, Stamford Art Gallery, Stamford, Connecticut
2013 Irrational Exuberance, Lionheart Gallery, Pound Ridge, New York
2007 Working Process: Drawings & Collages by Geoffrey Stein, Goodenough Gallery, Mecklenburgh Square, London

selected group shows

2014 Shooting Star CHASE (Children's Hospice Assoc.), Art Exhibition, Royal College of Art, London
2014 23rd Annual Juried Show, Juror: David Cohen, Bowery Gallery, New York
2014 Who We Aren't, Union Street Gallery, Chicago Heights, Illinois
2014 The Face of Portraiture, Curator: Rebecca Wilson, Saatchi Online, online exhibition