Geometric, Optical and Color-based Abstract Paintings by Peter D Stephens

Recent and new color-based, geometric and optical paintings by Peter D Stephens , a very established and talented artist from upstate New York. His current studio practice explores diverse materials and supports as well as different methods of applying acrylic color to them. The process is a combination of painting, mark making and collaging of readymade materials for the ground colors to create geometric abstractions with subtle illusory and optical qualities and a nod toward Op Art. The confluence of geometry, line and color interaction produces the tremendous visual depth and optics that suggests overlapping planes and three-dimensional space in a two-dimensional picture and thus, challenging visual perception.

 
 Stephens paintings are in the permanent collections of the following museums as well as many private and corporate collections: Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY, Burchfield Penney Art Center, Buffalo, NY, Castellani Art Museum, Niagara Falls, NY and Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, NY.
 
 

Peter Stephens
 Mata Hari
 Acrylic and collage on wood
 2019
 30 x 24"
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Peter Stephens
 Period Piece
 Acrylic and collage on wood
 2020
 40 x 44"
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Peter Stephens
 Two Cents
 Acrylic and collage on wood
 2017
 24 x 20"
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Peter Stephens
 Parakeet
 Acrylic and collage on wood
 2019
 24 x 24"
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Peter Stephens
 Ship Shape
 Acrylic and collage on wood
 2018
 20 x 16"
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Peter Stephens
 Tomorrowland
 Acrylic and collage on textile and wood
 2018
 72 x 108"
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 About Peter Stephens:
 
 Stephens is an artist based in Buffalo, New York. He studied at the Rochester Institute of Technology, University of Siena, Siena, Italy and The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has been featured in solo shows at Nina Freudenheim Gallery (Buffalo), TUB Gallery (Miami), Zolla/Lieberman Gallery (Chicago), R. B. Stevenson Gallery (San Diego), Fenimore Art Museum (Cooperstown, N.Y.), Drabinsky & Friedlan Gallery (Toronto), and Bess Cutler Gallery (Los Angeles), among other venues. Stephens’s work is in several museum collections, including the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, the Burchfield-Penney Art Center, and the Castellani Art Museum in Western New York, as well as the Brooklyn Museum.
 
 

By David Eichholtz

New York

September 14, 2020