Anders Wahlstedt Fine Art opens 'Shaping Color: Paintings by Jason Stewart'
The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Thursday, November 28, 2024


Anders Wahlstedt Fine Art opens 'Shaping Color: Paintings by Jason Stewart'
The “Shaping Color” series was composed during the tumultuous time of the pandemic.

by Claudia Carr Levy



NEW YORK, NY.- Upon first seeing Jason Stewart’s new work, I thought of Filippo Brunelleschi’s facade of the Ospedale degli Innocenti, the foundling hospital in Florence that he was commissioned to design in 1419. The arches of the hospital facade have always captivated me. Brunelleschi’s arches are perfect in their form and progression: perfect graceful architecture. Why, I wondered, did that architectural image appear as I looked at the series of paintings called “Shaping Color”?

The precision of Jason Stewart’s arcs in their spaces on canvas resonate with Brunelleschi’s architecture. The paintings seem to transpose geometric architectural form into pictorial space. Perhaps this geometry would seem to belie the dominance and importance of color in these paintings. Yet color holds the arcs; the arcs hold color. The more one looks at these works, the more one observes the paradox between color and form. And the more elusive the paintings become.

There is a mystery in these works revealed through close observation. Do the arcs ascend? Descend? Are they hovering in space? Why were careful squares and horizontally shaped canvases chosen to contain the paintings’ movement? Ultimately, these questions lead to the metaphysical nature of these paintings: the spaces between the concrete and the spiritual. “Painting goes its own way, leaving the onlooker with the presence of something and the possibility of making that presence personal. It’s the presence, not the painting itself that has meaning,” Jason Stewart said in describing his previous exhibition.

I have witnessed the evolution of Jason Stewart’s work since his 1998 exhibition at my gallery, Claudia Carr Works on Paper. His paintings at that time were generally in a square format of 22” x 22” and composed of dry pigment on paper. The paintings consisted of elusive imagery and lines that seemed etched on deeply colored backgrounds. In his later shows, work on paper gave way to shallow relief surfaces for geometric structures.

In the artist’s 2019 exhibition at Anders Wahlstedt, precisely defined colored shapes predominated, and the paintings in acrylic on linen were a departure from his previous exploration of surfaces. The work presented a more concise definition of form interacting with color. In his current exhibition, Jason Stewart has greatly expanded his format, with some paintings as large as 48”x 60”. Utilizing this significant change in format, he has achieved a new marriage of color and form, of architecture and color, and of geometry and space.

The “Shaping Color” series was composed during the tumultuous time of the pandemic. Within the isolation imposed by the pandemic, Jason Stewart found an environment enabling him to concentrate on his work with protracted intensity. This exhibition is a result of deeply sought spiritual values and pure expression of complex thought, which contribute to the architecture of the soul.

Jason Stewart is an American painter working in New York. He earned his B.A. at the University of Southern Maine and his M.A. and M.F.A. at the University at Albany, State University of New York. Stewart studied with colorfield painter, Pete Taylor as well as the abstract expressionist sculptor, Richard Stankiewicz. He has exhibited widely at galleries such as Anders Wahlstedt Fine Art, NY, Geary Contemporary, NY, and Blackburn 20/20 Gallery, NY. Stewart's artwork is featured in the collections of the Portland Museum of Art, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, and The Delaware Art Museum among others.

Claudia Carr Levy is a working artist. She was curator of collections at The Picker Art Gallery in Hamilton, New York before opening her own gallery, Claudia Carr Works on Paper, in New York’s SoHo district. She has been a member of 22 Wooster Gallery and worked as a director of sales at the renowned Sindin Galleries on Madison Avenue in Manhattan. She received a Master’s degree in art history and has taught art history at Colgate University.










Today's News

July 9, 2021

Anders Wahlstedt Fine Art opens 'Shaping Color: Paintings by Jason Stewart'

Major survey exhibition of Viceregal Latin American Art on view at Colnaghi London and New York

The Brooklyn Museum presents 'Modern Gothic: The Inventive Furniture of Kimbel and Cabus, 1863-82'

A Leonardo da Vinci the size of a post-it sells for $12.2 million

Christie's Classic Week evening sales realise $88,982,773

Bonhams blazing a trail for modern British women artists in September sale

Robert Downey Sr., filmmaker and provocateur, is dead at 85

Freeman's to offer an important private collection of sculptures by François-Xavier Lalanne

Hake's $3.6M auction shatters house record as company marks its best year since launching in 1967

Sotheby's to offer $1M+ rare Bill Bowerman track spikes in sale dedicated to the Olympics

Yale University Press publishes paperback edition of Art Can Help by Robert Adams

Polk Museum of Art unveils new, permanent gallery for African and Oceanic art

Latitude member galleries exhibit at ARCOmadrid

Collector and scholar John Andrew Herdeg dies at age 83

Museum of the African Diaspora to establish new chief curator position with support of Mellon Foundation

BALTIC announces Kate Gray as new Director of Enterprise and Public Value

Suzzanne Douglas, star of 'The Parent 'Hood,' dies at 64

'Legally Blonde' oral history: From raunchy script to feminist classic

From the schlump with the shiv, two plays turned podcasts

The Cannes Film Festival is back, lavish and maskless (despite the rules)

Robots can make music, but can they sing?

These drama students trained for years. Then theater vanished.

The 'prince of opera' bids Munich farewell

MARC STRAUS now represents Renée Stout

What is IPTV, and how it works

Party Casino overview by CasinoBonusTips.com

Understanding the Importance of Professional Water Damage Removal

What Does Customer Service Training Mean?

5 best wine suitcases for travel with the safest packing




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez
Writer: Ofelia Zurbia Betancourt

Attorneys
Truck Accident Attorneys
Accident Attorneys
Houston Dentist
Abogado de accidentes
สล็อต
สล็อตเว็บตรง
Motorcycle Accident Lawyer

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site Parroquia Natividad del Señor
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful