MAXWELL STEVENS
Maxwell Stevens is a contemporary painter recognized for his distinctive synthesis of photorealism and abstraction, creating layered works that explore memory, time, and the psychological resonance of everyday life. Through a process of cutting, fragmenting, and recontextualizing earlier paintings, Stevens constructs compositions in which intimate domestic scenes coexist with bold, gestural abstraction. This interplay between precision and disruption forms the conceptual and visual foundation of his practice.
Drawing from autobiographical sources, Stevens often depicts quiet interior spaces—tables, chairs, lamps, vessels, and architectural details—rendered with meticulous, almost historical realism. Human figures are notably absent, yet their presence is felt through the objects that remain, transforming each painting into a subtle form of portraiture. These fragments, placed against raw linen and activated by expressive marks, merge past and present, suggesting the erosion of memory and the passage of time while inviting viewers to consider how personal histories accumulate within the spaces we inhabit.
Balancing technical rigor with emotional immediacy, Stevens’ paintings occupy a compelling space between figuration and abstraction, where narrative and materiality intersect. The resulting works are both intellectually reflective and visually dynamic, offering collectors and audiences a nuanced meditation on perception, identity, and contemporary experience. His practice has been exhibited widely across the United States, Europe, and Asia, and his work is held in prominent private and institutional collections.
SELECTED WORKS
Maxwell Stevens was born in Charleston, South Carolina (USA) in 1971. He received an MFA in Painting from the School of Art at Washington University in Saint Louis, and a BFA in Painting from The Atlanta College of Art. He is best known for his multi-layered paintings and drawings that overlay photorealistic images with vivid, energized abstractions. Shortly after moving to New York City, after many years of working exclusively in non-representational abstraction, Stevens embarked on a significant stylistic shift in his approach to his art. He began composing his canvases with recognizable imagery, incorporating photorealist figures and lifelike scenes into his works, and then abruptly superposing these paintings directly with tumultuous abstractions. This new period is clearly identifiable by large abstract painted gestures superimposed directly on top of photorealist paintings that have become increasingly descriptive, with each series correlating the seasons, Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter, around a deeply personal and often autobiographical theme. Stevens positions his art in a space that seamlessly blends figurative and abstract styles while juxtaposing the two.
His creative process weaves together emotions, concepts, and imagery, sometimes led by chance and later refined through thoughtful exploration. With each stage, Stevens develops numerous "moments" that serve as focal points in his series, complemented by philosophical contemplation, psychological insight, and emotional resonance, ultimately finding release through abstraction. In the series presented, a new feature stands out: images are purposefully disrupted, offering viewers a chance to glimpse fleeting scenes from everyday life. As fragments, they stand in stark contrast to the freshly painted abstractions, creating a historical subtext within the overall presentation, allowing past and present to coalesce together. This detail, seemingly raw and almost worn, with the canvas cut in an almost accidental way, becomes a metaphor for the passage of time and memory, reminding viewers that the artwork becomes a moment for reflection on life’s difficulties and challenges. On the surface, domestic themes have a quiet and introspective presence, but on closer inspection there are hidden psychological tensions and cathartic expressions that occur in these private spaces where individuals live.
"Over time, I’ve become increasingly intrigued by new possibilities within the interplay of figuration and abstraction. The Fragment Paintings have allowed me to explore this gap in time between different stages of the paintings. These works arise from previous paintings and studies that were initially discarded and later cut up, torn, and used in a new way. So there is a conceptual component to the series, but also a technique that incorporates two very different styles of painting set against one another on the backdrop of a raw linen panel."
The possibilities with his newly invented approach has allowed him to introduce a wide variety of content and narrative situations into what at first glance often appears as a purely abstract picture, opening up to new subject matter while raising important questions about the very nature of perception, representation, memory, and truth, while constantly questioning and pushing the limits of painting as a form. Often working with everyday scenes drawn directly from life, the artist has said “I’m interested in the domestic arena as the primary site for our psychological and emotional experiences, and in how we exist differently, historically, within each passing moment. I try to use abstraction and the fragmentation of representational imagery to evoke this.”
Exploring an array of subjects over the years, his pictures address many of the shared aspects of the human condition. Maxwell Stevens has exhibited extensively and internationally in contemporary venues from Tokyo to Paris to New York, alongside major artists such as Cy Twombly, Joseph Beuys, and Dorothea Rockburne. Recent exhibitions include Postcards From The Edge, Berry Campbell Gallery, New York, NY, DIAF, Galerie Bruno Massa, Daegu, South Korea, artRoom, Galleria Tilde, Palermo, Italy, Pink Art Fair, Seoul, South Korea, Visual Perspectives, Palazzo Pasini Revedin, Venice, Italy, Haze, Galleria Tilde, Palermo, Italy, (de)construct, Galleria Tilde, Palermo, Italy, He Said, She Said, Amos Eno Gallery, New York, NY, In The Emancipation of Self, D Contemporary, London, United Kingdom, Last Days of Summer, Galerie Bruno Massa, Paris, France, Trait d’Union, Galerie Bruno Massa, Paris, France, Marbella Design & Art, Marbella, Spain, (un)fair Milan, Milan, Italy, Visions, Monat Gallery, Madrid, Spain, Horizon, Monat Gallery, Madrid, Spain, The Seasons, Van Der Plas Gallery, New York, NY, Last Days of Summer, Onetwentyeight, New York, NY, 8 X 12, Floor_, Seoul, South Korea, and Tilted Visions, VillageOneArt, New York, NY. His paintings and projects have been featured in numerous publications including Art in America, Art Collector News, Art News USA, Aatonau Magazine, Contemporary Art Explore, Cultbytes, Fine Art Connoisseur, NY Arts Magazine, Meer Magazine, The Museum of Modern Art Contemporary Drawing and Print Associates Bulletin, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and Art Papers.