Steven Alexander, 'All One Thing'

ALL ONE THING Recent work

by Steven Alexander

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ALL ONE THING Recent work by Steven

Alexander

January 18 – February 24, 2024

ALL ONE THING

“He had to choose. But it was not a choice

Between excluding things. It was not a choice

Between, but of. He chose to include the things That in each other are included, the whole, The complicate, the amassing harmony.”

Wallace Stevens

The title of this exhibition, All One Thing, reﬂects the broad inclusivity of the aesthetic process. It asserts that the painting and the viewer are interdependent, acknowledging all the various elements that operate within the moment of interaction: the formal components of the painting, the organization of those elements as a whole, the presence of the object on the wall, along with the sensibility of the viewer –their psychology, physicality, and experience.

The title also refers to the work in the context of history and ontology. I think of my paintings as participants in the ancient continuum of painting that goes back to the caves – collective evidence of the most fundamental human poetic activity, all sharing the same DNA. In a broader sense, I regard painting as a unique portal through which one may gain access to an inﬁnite web of impulses, and a realization of being part of everything else….all one thing

The paintings in this exhibition are, ﬁrst and foremost, the byproducts of a process – of questions being posed, and of vague inferences being explored. They embody, frankly and humbly, my ongoing research into the nature of being human, and are intrinsically open and ambiguous. They propose that meaning resides in the convergence and coalescence of every element and nuance within the total aesthetic ﬁeld, enabling heightened access to the richness of the existent moment – the stuff of life and love as color presence – states of being, embodied in paint.

Steven Alexander, December 2023

For more than forty years, Steven Alexander has been dedicated to exploring the language of abstraction, and its potential for regeneration and historical resonance. Extending the legacies of iconic modern artists such as Piet Mondrian, Giorgio Morandi, and Mark Rothko, who approached painting as an existential investigation, Alexander’s paintings present uncomplicated color situations that mirror the viewer and allude to rhythms, tensions, and dualities of the body and the psyche.

Alexander states, “My first direct encounter with a Rothko painting was at the age of 18 in the Dallas Museum. A large mid-career painting revealed in its engulfing scale, its undulating color relations, its raw surface, and floating space, a mysterious and extraordinary depth of sensation. It was at that moment I knew I would strive to be a painter. My work since then has been an ongoing exploration of possible ways to create for the viewer an experience like I had with that Rothko painting.”