Aaron T Stephan
Untitled Lenin (2020)
Aaron T Stephan’s work presents a wry look at the world around him – focusing on the complex web of information carried by everyday materials and objects. This particular body work addresses the impermanence of the public monument by exploring shifting meanings within a dynamic public context. This includes the present day toppling of civil war monuments, the dramatic disposal of monuments erected in Paris during “monument fever”, and the removal of Lenin statues the world over during the second half of the 20th century.
Aaron was the 2002 Marguerite Zorach fellow at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, the 2005 Louise Bourgeois fellow at Yaddo in Saratoga Springs, NY, and was an artist in residence in the Arts/Industry Program in Kohler, WI in 2008.
His work has been featured at venues across the US including Locust Projects, DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Samson Projects, The Portland Museum of Art, John Michael Kohler Art Center, California Center for the Arts, Farnsworth Art Museum, Weitz Center at Carlton College, Institute of Contemporary Art at MECA, DUMBO Center for the Arts, Troy Arts Center, University of Maine Museum of Art, Quint Contemporary, and Albany Airport Gallery.
Aaron has completed public commissions across the U.S. including Boston, MA, Denver, CO, Manchester NH, Lubbock, TX, Salt Lake City, UT, Nashville, TN, Indianapolis, IN, San Diego, CA, and Portland, ME amongst others.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2019 Intermediate Submittal, Dowling Walsh Gallery, Rockland ME
2017 Cement Houses and How to Build Them, Locust Projects, Miami FL
Flat World & 30 Columns, Shelburne Museum, Shelburne VT
2016 Book/House, Quint Contemporary Art, La Jolla CA
2014 To Borrow, Cut, Copy and Steal, Portland Museum of Art, Portland ME
Aaron T Stephan, McIninch Art Gallery, Manchester, NH
2013 Second-Hand Utopias, DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln MA
Art Handling, Samsøn, Boston MA
Paths, Coleman Burke Gallery, Brunswick ME
2012 Aggressive Uninterest, Aucocisco Gallery, Portland ME
2011 Corporeal, Aucocisco Gallery, Portland ME
COMMISSIONS
2021 Woven Lines, Altoona, IA
Paths Rising, Tampa International Airport, Tampa, FL
Luminous Bound, Montana RTS Far East Transfer Center, El Paso, TX
Unfolding Lights, GLX Lowell Street Station, Somerville, MA
2020 Luminous Remembrance, Lubbock Tornado Memorial, Lubbock, TX
2019 Luminous Arbor, City of Portland, Portland, ME
2018 Paths Woven, San Diego International Airport, San Diego, CA
2016 Gold Pour, RTD Gold Strike Station, Arvada CO
Point of View, Salt Palace Convention Center, Salt Lake City, UT
2015 Variations, Texas Tech University, Lubbock TX
Accumulate, Clearwater Fire Station 45, Clearwater, FL
2014 Downpour, Southern New Hampshire University, Manchester NH
2013 Paths Crossed, Wishard Hospital, Indianapolis, IN
Composition, Music City Center, Nashville, TN
2012 Illuminations, WG Mallett Elementary School, Farmington ME
Becoming, Hampden Academy, Hampden ME
2011 Paths Open, Jefferson Village School, Jefferson, ME
2010 Return, Westbrook Middle School, Westbrook ME
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2020 Tokens of Appreciation, John Michael Kohler Art Center, Sheboygan WI
2019 10,000 Hours +, Speedwell Projects, Portland, ME
2018 Land-Sc(r)aping, Living Arts, Tulsa, OK
2017 NADA Miami, w/ Locust Projects, Miami, FL
Materiality, Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockland, ME
Construct, Dowling Walsh Gallery, Rockland, ME
The Apartment, Space, Portland ME
2015 Pulse NY Art Fair, with Sienna Gallery, New York, NY
Me, Mona and Mao, Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME
2014 Untitled Art Fair, with Samsøn, Miami, FL
Self, Engine, Biddeford ME
2012 Covet, Sienna Gallery, Lennox, MA
Portes, Mytilene Public Gallery, Mytilene, Greece
Strangers and Others, Pace Galleries at Fryeburg Academy, Fryeburg, ME
2011 Seeing Is Knowing, Weitz Center at Carlton College, Northfield, MN
Meredyth and Meg Go 3d, Gallery Naga, Boston MA
2010 4 In Maine, Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland ME
The Imaged Word, Albany Airport Gallery, Albany, NY
The Arch. of Environmental Landscapes, University of New England, Westbrook ME
PERFORMANCE/EVENTS
2019 Point of Failure, Portland, ME
2018 Oyster/Block, Athens, GA
2016 I. Make. Stuff., State Theater, Portland, ME
2015 Inside, Outside, Above, Below, Thompson’s Point, Portland, ME
2014 Substance, a series of culinary events at the artist’s home, Portland ME
2011 Another Evening of BS With Aaron T Stephan, Space, Portland ME
EDUCATION
MFA, Maine College of Art, Portland ME 2002
BFA in sculpture, (SUNY) Purchase College, Purchase NY 1996
Undergraduate study, Hogenschool Vor Kunsten, Amsterdam, Netherlands 1994 – 1995
RESIDENCIES
Edenfred Arts Residency, Madison, WI 2012
Kohler Artist-in-Residence, Sheboygan WI 2008
Yaddo, Saratoga Springs NY 2005
Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Skowhegan ME 2002
SPECIAL PROJECTS
Curator of Demanding Objects, Able Baker, Portland, ME 2020
Closer, self-published book 2016
HONORS + AWARDS
Good Idea Grant, Maine Arts Commission 2009, 2011, 2014
TEACHING
Instructor, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, ME 2018
Artist-Teacher, Vermont College of Fine Arts, VT 2017
Artist Mentor, New Hampshire Institute of Art, Manchester, NH 2015
Adjunct Professor, Maine College of Art, Portland ME 2013
Artist Mentor, The Art Institute of Boston, MFA in Visual Arts Program, Boston MA 2012
Non-Residency Studio Instructor, Maine College of Art, MFA, Portland ME 2009 – 2013
BIOGRAPHY
Anna Mazurek, “4 Art Road Trips to Take This Fall” Washington Post, Oct 2020
Natasha Gural “Beauty in Seclusion” Portland Monthly, June 2020
Stacey Kors “Art Q&A: Sculptors Aaron Stephan & Lauren Fenster…” Portland Press Herald, May 2020
Bob Keyes, “Artist Hopes Lighted Sculpture…” Maine Sunday Telegram, June 2019
“20th Anniversary Retrospective” Locust Projects, Dec 2018
“Luminous Arbor Lights Up…” Portland Press Herald, November 2018
David Harry, “Light the Lamps…” The Forcaster, November 2018
Randy Billings, “Portland Artist Ready to Plant…” Portland Press Herald, October 2018
“Monumental Sculpture Installed…” ArtDaily, Aug 2018
Rob Caldwell, “Creating Art Out of Ladders” 207 News Center Maine, April 2018
Bob Keyes, “Sculptor’s Pieces Says…” Portland Press Herald, March 2018
Anne Tschida, “Bricks and Butterflies”, Miami Biscayne Times, Oct 2017
Claire Barliant, “Public Art Starts the Conversation”, Art New England, Jan 2017
Featured, “Knowledge”, Capitel Magazine, Jan 2017
Taryn Plumb, “Inventive and Inspired”, Artscope, Nov 2016
Rebecca Falzano, Building Stories, Old Port Magazine, Nov 2016
Ashley Stilson, “Near or Far: New Salt Lake Art Piece…” Deseret News, Aug 2016
Bill Nemitz, “Brave Artist Ready for Portland” Maine Sunday Telegram, June 2016
Bob Keyes, “Me, Mona, and Mao…” Maine Today, November 2015
Christopher Papagni, “Dining Art: Inside, Outside, Above, Below…” The Portland Phoenix, October 2015
Jamie Thompson, “Aaron Stephan Laughs with Us”, Artscope, November 2014
Mariah Bergeron, “Critique the Hand that Feeds You”, The Portland Phoenix, October 2014
NPR/MPBN, “A Portland Sculpture Talks Art on Sex Lines”, Sept 2014
Bob Keyes, “Stephan Encourages Visitors to Think Outside…”, Maine Sunday Telegram, Sept 2014
David Raymond, “Aaron Stephan: Downpour”, Art New England, Sept 2014
Diane Georgopulos, “At Issue: Reading Rooms”, Architecture Boston, Summer 2014
Laura Landro, “More Hospitals Buy into the Healing Powers of Public Art”, Wall Street Journal, Aug 2014
Mariah Berger, “The Existential Artist”, The Portland Phoenix, June 2014
“50 Mainers Shaping Our State”, Maine Magazine, June 2014
“Unconventional: Nashville’s Music City Center”, Jan. 2014
Cate McQuaid, “Images that echo through time and spaces” Boston Globe, September 2013
Cate McQuaid, “Platforms for amusement” Boston Globe, August 2013
NYArts Magazine, “Art and Ageism: The Decisive Eye of Fellow Artists”, June 2013
Daniel Kany, “Follow Stephan’s Maze of Paths”, Maine Sunday Telegram, April 2013
Britta Konau, “Recalling the Year’s most Notable Shows”, The Portland Phoenix, Dec 2012
Daniel Kany, “Flirting with a New form of Conceptual Art”, Maine Sunday Telegram, October 2012
Nicholas Schroeder “Meeting ‘Strangers’…” The Portland Phoenix, May 2012
Eric Moskowitz, “Contest Aims to Move Cambridge…”, Boston Sunday Globe, Feb. 2012
“Recent Projects”, Public Art Review, Spring 2011
Daniel Kany, “Pop Art Sensibilities Add Excitement to Show”, Maine Sunday Telegram, March 2011
Nicholas Schroeder “Two Artist Show at Aucocisco Explores…” The Portland Phoenix, September 2011
Cate McQuaid, “A Compelling Look…”, Boston Globe, Jan. 2011
Bob Keyes, “New on the Scene”, Portland Press Herald, Jan. 2011
Tom Keyser, “Word Play”, Albany Times Union, August 2010
Jordan Reardon, “Visualizing the ‘Word’”, The Albany Post-Star, August 2010
Nadine Wasserman, “Picture Books”, Albany Metroland, August 2010
Edgar Allen Beem, “Art on the Edge”, Down East Magazine, August 2010
Bob Keyes, “Sculptor Goes Diving..”, Portland Press Herald, March 2010
LECTURES/WORKSHOPS/CRITIQUES
Rochester Institute of Technology
University of Georgia Athens
Locust Projects
Shelburne Museum
Colby College
DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum
Rhode Island School of Design
University of Maine at Orono
Farnsworth Art Museum
Portland Museum of Art
University of Maine Museum of Art
Bowdoin College
Central Maine Community College
University of Southern Maine
John Michael Kohler Arts Center
Maine College of Art
Center for Maine Contemporary Art
Chester College
Union of Maine Visual Artists
Space Gallery
University of Maine at Farmington
Institute of Contemporary Art, Portland, ME
Saco Museum
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