Luke Stettner (USA)
www.lukestettner.com
Introduction
Employing a range of media, including photography, sculpture, installation and audio tracks, Luke Stettner has perfected an artistic strategy in which the discrete, minimal and formal complement the tension of the content he deals with in his work. Each piece he makes thus becomes a silent carrier: an object to be approached with caution and care, in order to understand its real scope as a constrained and evocatively disconcerting form. An acute observer of American Minimalism, but also an artist of great emotional participation, Stettner’s works manage to escape precise classification, creating a space of permanent instability.
His personal biography alternates with narrative fragments , tracing a path sprinkled with visual geometry and great emotional impact. Fore and Aft NY Skyline, May 1st, 1938is a mirror-structure that reflects the black-and-white image of American coastlines as they were captured by the artist’s grandfather when he arrived in the New World as an emigrant from Europe. Untitled is a block of plexiglas in which a looped tape recording endlessly repeats the final word uttered by the artist’s father before he died. Similarly, Nesting Plates is a funerary urn consisting of stacked plastic plates containing his father’s ashes. 119 Minutes, August 1st, 2008 (5:21 am–7:20 am), on the other hand, illustrates natural physical phenomena analysed in terms of their dynamic and formal qualities, in a mix of entropy and geometrical discipline.
Visionary intuition and memory appear in turn and at whirlwind speed in Stettner’s work, creating a space of metaphysical tension that is built from the ground up and explores primary forms, everyday objects and dispersed emotions.
Critics picks artforum - Kate Werble New York
Kate Werble Gallery New York
Luke Stettner
Eyes that are like two suns
Sept 10 - Oct 15
Untitled, (Absence grows sharper), 2011
(installation view, Kate Werble, New York)
Three identical cubes, 2011
(installation view, Kate Werble, New York)
Installation view of grey area, 2011
(installation view, Kate Werble, New York)
The Fold
(Stene Projects, 2010)
The photograph I used for Giza 1979/2009 is an original that my father took in 1979 of the Great Pyramids. My mother, who accompanied my father on the trip to Egypt, was pregnant with me at the time. When my dad died in 1994, I came to own this picture along with some of his other belongings. I've been making art with his things, changing my relationship to them, releasing them into the world with a different set of physical circumstances. The folding in this piece allows me to draw the viewer close and still keep some of the image private. It is a transformative process, both indelibly altering the photograph and giving it a newfound structural integrity. / Luke Stettner
Giza 1979/2009
(The Fold)
Giza 1979/2009
(The Fold)
Giza 1979/2009
(The Fold)
Giza 1979/2009, 2009
25X36cm x 10, edition 5, photos printed on paper
(The Fold)
Nesting Plates, 2010
30X25cm, plastic plates and human remains
Fore and After NY Skyline, May 1st, 1938, 2009
(installation view, The Art Institute Chicago, 2009)
Can't See The Forest For The Trees, 2009
(installation view, The Art Institute Chicago, 2009)
All the wait I have left, 2009
104X135cm, framed carpet
What Was, What Wasn´t, What Will Never Be, 2009
40X30cm x 3, recycled paper, debossed text
- What Was- What Wasnt- What Will Never Be_800.jpg)
Untitled, 2009
variable dimensions, tape recorder, sound proof plexi box
119 min, August 1st, 2008 (5:21 AM-7:20 AM), 2008
liquid light emulsion on paper, 119 sheets, each sheet, 30X23cm
- 2008- liquid light emulsion on paper 119- each sheet- 11 1116X9 inches _800.jpg)
Close your eyes and look around, 2009
light bulb, socket, wood, paper, phosphoroscent paint, and pyrex frame, 50X35cm, bulb, 36X18cm
www.lukestettner.com
Introduction
Employing a range of media, including photography, sculpture, installation and audio tracks, Luke Stettner has perfected an artistic strategy in which the discrete, minimal and formal complement the tension of the content he deals with in his work. Each piece he makes thus becomes a silent carrier: an object to be approached with caution and care, in order to understand its real scope as a constrained and evocatively disconcerting form. An acute observer of American Minimalism, but also an artist of great emotional participation, Stettner’s works manage to escape precise classification, creating a space of permanent instability.
His personal biography alternates with narrative fragments , tracing a path sprinkled with visual geometry and great emotional impact. Fore and Aft NY Skyline, May 1st, 1938is a mirror-structure that reflects the black-and-white image of American coastlines as they were captured by the artist’s grandfather when he arrived in the New World as an emigrant from Europe. Untitled is a block of plexiglas in which a looped tape recording endlessly repeats the final word uttered by the artist’s father before he died. Similarly, Nesting Plates is a funerary urn consisting of stacked plastic plates containing his father’s ashes. 119 Minutes, August 1st, 2008 (5:21 am–7:20 am), on the other hand, illustrates natural physical phenomena analysed in terms of their dynamic and formal qualities, in a mix of entropy and geometrical discipline.
Visionary intuition and memory appear in turn and at whirlwind speed in Stettner’s work, creating a space of metaphysical tension that is built from the ground up and explores primary forms, everyday objects and dispersed emotions.
Critics picks artforum - Kate Werble New York
Kate Werble Gallery New York
Luke Stettner
Eyes that are like two suns
Sept 10 - Oct 15
Untitled, (Absence grows sharper), 2011
(installation view, Kate Werble, New York)
Three identical cubes, 2011
(installation view, Kate Werble, New York)
Installation view of grey area, 2011
(installation view, Kate Werble, New York)
The Fold
(Stene Projects, 2010)
The photograph I used for Giza 1979/2009 is an original that my father took in 1979 of the Great Pyramids. My mother, who accompanied my father on the trip to Egypt, was pregnant with me at the time. When my dad died in 1994, I came to own this picture along with some of his other belongings. I've been making art with his things, changing my relationship to them, releasing them into the world with a different set of physical circumstances. The folding in this piece allows me to draw the viewer close and still keep some of the image private. It is a transformative process, both indelibly altering the photograph and giving it a newfound structural integrity. / Luke Stettner
Giza 1979/2009
(The Fold)
Giza 1979/2009
(The Fold)
Giza 1979/2009
(The Fold)
Giza 1979/2009, 2009
25X36cm x 10, edition 5, photos printed on paper
(The Fold)
Nesting Plates, 2010
30X25cm, plastic plates and human remains
Fore and After NY Skyline, May 1st, 1938, 2009
(installation view, The Art Institute Chicago, 2009)
Can't See The Forest For The Trees, 2009
(installation view, The Art Institute Chicago, 2009)
All the wait I have left, 2009
104X135cm, framed carpet
What Was, What Wasn´t, What Will Never Be, 2009
40X30cm x 3, recycled paper, debossed text
Untitled, 2009
variable dimensions, tape recorder, sound proof plexi box
119 min, August 1st, 2008 (5:21 AM-7:20 AM), 2008
liquid light emulsion on paper, 119 sheets, each sheet, 30X23cm
Close your eyes and look around, 2009
light bulb, socket, wood, paper, phosphoroscent paint, and pyrex frame, 50X35cm, bulb, 36X18cm