STEEL STILLMAN, exhibition view "Whether", 2008
In Steel Stillman’s 2003 exhibition ‘Echo’ at Galerie van Gelder wallpaintings of irregular arrays of light grey dots formed abstract planes of illusionistic lightness. This lightness is overturned in his current exhibition ‘Whether’ in which space - whether it be the virtual space of photographs or the optical space of wallpaintings - is covered up. In the photographs uncanny black shapes occupy the picture plane, leaving the viewer to speculate about what lies behind their surfaces. In the more abstract wallpaintings a strong black center sits on top of concentric bands. This central shape introduces an optical confusion in which the viewer is both drawn into a black hole and pursued by a dark surface that appears to move outward into the gallery space.
In the gallery’s front room the entire rear wall is painted a monochrome greyish blue, an ambiguous color characteristic of Stillman’s work. Adjacent to it hangs a portrait photograph of a man whose face is covered by a black square. The relations between these rectangular forms – wall, photograph, mask – generate unexpected associations. In the main gallery the same man appears again, in a photograph from his youth, and again his face is obscured. On the opposite wall a group of photographs of interiors are partially covered by irregular but suggestive shapes. Considered as a whole, and in relation to the wallpaintings, these persistent black planes provoke an unusual interrogation of time and space.
Recently Steel Stillman participated in 'History, Use & Borrowed Landscape' at John Davis Gallery, Hudson, New York (curated by Nancy Shaver) and in 'Painted Faces' at Kinkead Contemporary in L.A. In June 2008 he will have his first solo exhibition at Mandarin Gallery, also in Los Angeles, California.