Steven Alexander, 'All One Thing'

ALL ONE THING Recent work by Steven Alexander

info@spaniermanmodern.com 212-249-0619 www.spaniermanmodern.com 958 Madison Ave., 2nd floor, New York, NY 10021

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.”

Clearing 4, 2022 Oil on canvas 50 x 60 inches Signed, titled, and dated on the verso

Clearing 9, 2023 Oil on canvas 50 x 40 inches Signed, titled, and dated on the verso

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Re ector 29, 2023 Oil on canvas 72 x 60 inches Signed, titled, and dated on the verso

Clearing 12, 2023 Oil on canvas 50 x 40 inches Signed, titled, and dated on the verso

Clearing 8, 2023 Oil on canvas 60 x 46 inches Signed, titled, and dated on the verso

Veil 9, 2022 Oil on canvas 48 x 72 inches Signed, titled, and dated on the verso

Clearing 14, 2023 Oil on canvas 50 x 40 inches Signed, titled, and dated on the verso

Clearing 6, 2023 Oil on canvas 50 x 60 inches Signed, titled, and dated on the verso

Clearing 15, 2023 Oil on canvas 24 x 20 inches Signed, titled, and dated on the verso

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Re ector 20, 2022 Oil on canvas 72 x 48 inches Signed, titled, and dated on the verso

Source 3, 2023 Oil on linen 60 x 50 inches Signed, titled, and dated on the verso

Clearing 1, 2022 Oil on canvas 50 x 40 inches Signed, titled, and dated on the verso

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Re ector 22, 2022 Oil on canvas 60 x 72 inches Signed, titled, and dated on the verso

Source 2, 2022 Oil on linen 42 x 36 inches Signed, titled, and dated on the verso

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Re ector 18, 2021 Oil on canvas 72 x 60 inches Signed, titled, and dated on the verso

Source 4, 2023 Oil on linen 42 x 36 inches Signed, titled, and dated on the verso

Source 5, 2023 Oil on linen 42 x 36 inches Signed, titled, and dated on the verso

STEVEN ALEXANDER Steven Alexander is an American artist who makes abstract paintings characterized by luminous color, sensuous surfaces, and iconic con gurations.

His works are composed as sensate visual events that embody potential states of being. They present uncomplicated color situations that mirror the viewer, alluding to rhythms, tensions, and dualities of the body and the psyche and inviting meditative encounters with one's perception and imagination.

Born in 1953 in west Texas, Alexander spent his early years observing the vast skies and at expanses of the southwest plains. He moved to New York in 1975, completing an MFA in painting at Columbia University, where he studied with Richard Pousette-Dart and Dore Ashton. An elected member of the venerable American Abstract Artists group, Alexander has been awarded grants from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation and the Belin Foundation, a studio residency at PS1 Contemporary Art Center, and many public commissions. He has been Artist-in Residence at Studio Art Centers International in Florence, Italy, Visiting Artist at Bowdoin College and Parsons School for Design, and was Professor of Visual Arts at Marywood University.

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Alexander's work has been featured in more than one hundred exhibitions, most recently in one-person shows in New York at Spanierman Modern and David Findlay Jr Gallery, as well as in numerous solo and group exhibitions and art fairs throughout the United States and abroad. He maintains a home and studio in the hills of eastern Pennsylvania.

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Gallery is open Tuesday-Saturday, 10-6.