James Stephens


James Stephens

James Stephens

James Stephens Description

James Stephens was born in Detroit in 1960. He received a B.F.A. from the College for Creative Studies in 1982. He had his first solo show in 1988 and has since been widely exhibited in the Midwest. In 2007 he had a Mid-Career Retrospective at Oakland University. His work is in many area collections including the Detroit Institute of Arts.
James' interest in surreal, blighted landscapes started early. In his youth he was surrounded by the remains of Detroit’s industrial base. In these landscapes, Stephens saw an unintentional power struggle between nature and man. Buildings that were abandoned and then left to collapse were then taken over by all forms of flora and fauna. These images provided a backdrop for what would become a lifelong exploration of Midwest landscape painting. His improvised compositions have become accretions of landscapes seen and remembered. Often the work is steeped in ambiguous allegory that is at once touching, cynical, humorous and filled with despair.

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