Gideon Stein is an artist and musician from New York City. 

 

ARTIST STATEMENT : I am a multimedia artist. My work is often inspired by music. Art and music bear strong similarities in execution, and at times they may employ some of the same techniques. For example, the repetition and accents of painting can be rhythmic, and the silences between notes are like pauses between brushstrokes. Action creates the result, whether by striking a note or drawing a line. The energy, inspiration and depth of creation is my motivation, and both the process and the results of my work enhance my aesthetic appreciation and perception of life. My goal is to inspire, and to be inspired.

 

OF HIS ART, STEIN SAID : "I enjoy watching my work unfold and move in front of me, both in the process of creating it and also in seeing the finished results. Successful work should offer me a chance to use my imagination and to exercise my ability and freedom to visualize things, whatever they may be at any given moment”. The sparsity of narrative and representation in his work is deliberate. “If elements within a piece of art are recognizable, they carry specific associations, which can suggest or, dictate to the viewer what to see. However, in the absence of recognizable forms or clear narrative people must identify their own meaning of what they see. As layers of meaning are identified and revealed, this process can grow with each individual work over the course of time, continually revealing different substance to the viewers, and subsequently a relationship can build with each piece. Over time, in the mind’s endless quest to process and understand unfamiliar things, it will conjure up recognizable shapes, patterns or objects to associate them with in order to identify meaning. Like reading a book and seeing the characters and situations in our heads, looking at works of art that challenge us to visualize and imagine what might be seen can allow us to arrive at curiously familiar images and thoughts, and to write our own internal stories about what we are looking at. Since there is no limit to what we can imagine, there is no limit to what we can see". 

 

Stein utilizes the elements of deconstruction and reconstruction, accident and non-predeliberation. The results become a surprise to both the viewer and the artist himself. His process allows for a lack of expectation and attachment to an end result, which provides a freshness in the finished work, and a continuous discovery of nuance and meaning.  

 

BIOGRAPHY: Gideon Stein was born in NYC. One of his early mentors was Sheila Lamb, who led the art department at the Dalton School where he was immediately recognized as a precocious talent. His early influences were Stuart Davis, MC Escher, Jackson Pollock, Comic books, and 80's graffiti/street art. Some of his work was included in a student art show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He began playing guitar when he was eight years old, and immediately fell in love with the instrument. During his formative years, he took studio art courses at Don Stacy Studios and studied with Guitar master Howard Morgen while attending Parsons/The New School. His first exposure to Jazz was while interning in the art department of GRP Records. It was an experience that would become a strong influence in his art and music. His mural "Universal Harmony" was exhibited at the Borough of Manhattan Community College. During an art sabbatical, he traveled throughout Central Java and Bali, Indonesia. The qualities of light and color led to a breakthrough for the young artist, who sought a paradisiacal region outside of his urban experience. While traveling there he met a local artist who wrote a letter of introduction for Stein to meet and present his work to Balinese art museum (ARMA) founder Agung Rai who told him, "You are a true artist because you create what you want to see, and not what you think others want to see". He then returned to America to study painting with Emily Mason, and printmaking with Vincent Longo at Hunter College in New York City. He became a student member of the venerable Salmagundi Club. At their landmark townhouse on 5th Avenue in Greenwich Village he participated in member shows and auctions, and assisted the curating committee. Stein moved to Woodstock, NY to assist the painter Al Held. Stein's love of music and art culminated in his mobile "Guitar Sculpture", which was featured in the art communities' centennial event, the collection of which was included in a Sotheby's/Ebay online auction of that same year. He returned to NYC to immerse himself in a four-year music and art intensive in Brooklyn's Park Slope, where he composed and recorded experimental music, participated in group shows, displayed his work in local enclaves, and performed at area clubs. It was an experience which led him to enter the professional arena of the art world as a gallerist and curator. Stein relocated to Bridgehampton, NY to open the eponymous Gideon Stein Gallery. The first exhibition was a retrospective of mixed media works on Paper, Canvas, Wood and Shoes. Far from a so called "vanity" gallery, its mission was to feature primarily unknown artists, and was received favorably by the public and area press. After a successful two-year run in Stein closed his gallery and relocated again to New York City to pursue music, forming his own band “Sea Kelp”, and also joining the “Bluesco Band”, performing in various NYC venues. On his restless quest for inspiration, he embarked for France to continue his pursuit of making art. Subsequent work yielded a series of mixed media paintings culminating in his first solo exhibition in Paris at the Usagi Galerie. He presented his second solo exhibition in Paris in July 2016.