GEOFFREY STEIN

ARTIST STATEMENT:

Geoffrey Stein paints, draws, and works with collage to find out what he thinks about the world; to discover the things he does not have words for. Savoring the slips of the hand that express one’s unconscious feelings about the subject. Stein’s work explores the tension between what needs to be shown and what does not, the seen and the unseen.

In his studio practice Stein utilizes collage as a formal element. It provides a way of putting down tone or erasing previous marks. There is a randomness in collage; the secondary meaning in the text or image becomes an important part of the finished work. Collage allows me to layer multiple images over the scaffolding of a drawing. He uses materials from the subject’s world to create their likeness. This is a modern take on the renaissance trope of putting objects into a portrait to illustrate the attributes of the subject, for example books to show the subject was educated. Instead of illustrating the attributes of the subject with a symbol, as a Renaissance era painter would.

Bio:

Geoffrey Stein is a former lawyer, who has been painting full-time since 2000. He received a Certificate in Painting from the New York Studio School in 2004 and an MFA from the Slade School of Fine Art, London in 2007. Stein has exhibited his artwork in museums and galleries throughout the United States and in London, Dublin, Paris, and Reykjavik. He was the Artist-in-Residence at the Elizabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University, White Plains, NY from 2022-23. Stein lives and paints in New York City and Westport, CT.