As a painter and visual artist, I’m most often working with everyday scenes that are personally significant to me, that I feel will be relatable to the viewer. At the same time, I’m always interested in pushing the limits of form and expression in unexpected ways. This selection of color-saturated prints is based on my paintings and represents the images through a different lens, one that embraces optical mixing and digital technologies that completely reinterpret the information presented. In the “Modern Portraits” series, the images are based on overpainted portraits of women in contemporary scenes, and in the “Autumn Leaves” series, they’re centered around the theme of musicians and tourists interacting in the public spaces around New York City’s famous Bethesda Fountain in Central Park. Each image is comprised of a vivid matrix of brilliantly hued discs incorporating both abstract and figurative elements from the original paintings, distilled to their coloristic essence. And while the recognizable aspects of the images become apparent with repeated viewing, these new arrangements present totally unique rhythms and movements that relate to the subject matter in fresh ways.

MAXWELL STEVENS is an American artist born in 1971 who lives and works in New York City. He received an MFA in Painting from the School of Art at Washington University in St. Louis in 1995, and a BFA in Painting from The Atlanta College of Art (now SCAD Atlanta) in 1993. He is best known for his multi-layered paintings and drawings that overlay photorealistic images with vivid, energized abstractions.

He has most recently expanded these images into a vibrant series of prints, a series which curator Beatrice Cordaro has described as an innovative synthesis of the abstract and figurative elements of the paintings distilled into compositions of vibrant-colored discs. Acutely referencing pointillism, she notes “The true essence of the work is best appreciated when viewed from a distance, revealing an illusionistic effect that further demonstrates Maxwell’s versatility and artistic prowess.”

Maxwell Stevens has exhibited extensively and internationally in contemporary venues from Tokyo to Dallas to New York, alongside major artists such as Cy Twombly, Joseph Beuys, and Dorothea Rockburne. His paintings and projects have been featured in numerous publications including Art in America, NY Arts Magazine, Meer Magazine, The Museum of Modern Art Contemporary Drawing and Print Associates Bulletin, Contemporary Art Explore, Fine Art Connoisseur, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and Art Papers, among many others.