ROCKLAND, ME.- Aaron T Stephan’s installation Murmur consists of thousands of cast concrete blocks, ranging in size from slightly over life size at the work’s perimeter to vanishingly small as they approach the center of the room. The culmination of a decade-long engagement with the concrete block, both as an abstract form and for the promise it held as an inexpensive construction material with industrial, commercial, and residential uses, Murmur ironizes its material and in the process tackles obvious art historical precedents—a strategy running through a wide swath of Stephan’s work as a whole.
In particular, on first glance Murmur is a parody of the Minimalist and post-Minimalist practices of artists who also used cinder blocks including Carl Andre, Robert Grosvenor, and Sol LeWitt, as well as those who created large sculpture fields, Walter de Maria in particular. Its first title was, in fact, Block Field, a nod both to de Maria (e.g., The Lightning Field, 1977) and a groaning pun on the word “block”—the work literally “blocks” access to the center of the field on which it sits. Yet this parody also manifests a deep affection both for the material and those predecessors, a complicated—and complicating—negotiation of art history that is typical of Stephan’s ambitious work overall.
The labor inherent in Murmur’s production and installation packs a punch, but by incorporating blocks that become Lilliputian in scale the entire activity registers as absurd. Likewise, notwithstanding its large scale, Murmur’s title denotes soft speaking, quietude, discretion, and indistinction. Like a giant amplifier with the sound turned nearly all the way off, it is potent and impotent at the same time. Moreover, its anti-heroism is striking in the present moment and coincides with a wave of attention to the legacy of heroic sculpture in general and monuments in particular.
Following the deinstallation of Murmur on April 6th, Stephan and collaborators will present a series of ticketed culinary performances. Additional details will be announced in early 2026.
Aaron T Stephan received his BFA from Purchase College, his MFA from the Maine College of Art (Portland, ME) , and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. His work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Dowling Walsh Gallery (Rockland, ME), Locust Projects (Miami, FL), the Shelburne Museum (Shelburne, VT), the Portland Museum of Art (Portland, ME), the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum (Lincoln, MA), SPACE Gallery (Portland, ME), Samsøn (Boston, MA), and many more. Stephan has completed dozens of public art commissions, and his work has been featured widely in group exhibitions at venues including CMCA, the Farnsworth Art Museum (Rockland, ME), the John Michael Kohler Art Center (Sheboygan, WI), and the Institute of Contemporary Art (Portland, ME). His work is in the collections of the Portland Museum of Art, the Farnsworth Art Museum, and numerous others.
