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By Paul Varnell Contributing Writer, Chicago Free Press
January 28, 2009
Jeff Stevenson, 46, teaches a variety of art-related classes at Governor’s State University and at Prairie State College in Chicago Heights—drawing, painting, art history and art appreciation. In his own work, he ranges widely, producing paintings, drawings, collages and mixed media pieces. Two of his collages were included in a recent group show at the Center on Halsted.
His current one-man exhibition at the Center, titled “Many/One,” consists of four larger-than-life paintings of handsome nude men with gym-toned bodies. Lacking the distortions of modern art (e.g., Picasso, Francis Bacon), these nevertheless are not exactly Renaissance-style nudes. It might be best to call them “postmodern” in that they take pains to distance the viewer from the subjects in the paintings, to insert the artist between the subject and the viewer.
Stevenson does this in several ways. Each painting consists of 12” square blocks. There is a background of small squares or rectangles of various colors, and in at least some cases, the body of the model itself is composed of small squares of various flesh-toned colors. In another case, the squares are slightly misassembled, emphasizing the artificiality of the painting.
Stevenson also uses some more painterly devices for the same purpose. He makes little effort to hide the brush strokes in the painting, although the effect is modest, and he varies the application of paint from thick to thin. To quote Stevenson, “The paint is applied in a way as to remain paint and not become an illusion of a completely ‘realistic’ or ‘life-like’ image.”
The first painting you come across is “David Devore,” a vertical painting of a man sitting in a chair, looking out toward the viewer. Its companion piece, “Transforming David,” at the other end of the exhibit, shows the same image, but—in the spirit of the current academic fad of “deconstruction”—lets the viewers see the parts somewhat out of place and, if they wish, to reassemble them mentally. “This,” Stevenson says, “is a metaphor for the human thought process.” That is probably not the way the mind works, but let Stevenson have his rationale.
“Modern Man” is a horizontal painting of a particularly well-built man lying down, seemingly oblivious to the viewer’s gaze. Despite the “postmodern” aspects, it can pack a definite erotic charge.
Finally, “Footsie” is the largest of the paintings. It depicts a man sitting down, with another less clearly delineated figure to the right, their feel close together or actually touching. According to Stevenson, the painting suggests the possibility of their moving to further intimacy.
Stevenson’s work is well worth viewing. It reminds us that not only is figurative art alive and well, but that painters, like contemporary composers, are finding ways to transcend the strictures of “modernity.” Stevenson’s work is one of the most interesting efforts to move in that direction that I have seen lately.“Many/One,” paintings at the Center on Halsted, 3656 N. Halsted, 2nd floor gallery space.
On view until Feb. 15. Open 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. No admission charge.