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Rick Stevens • Profile
Rick Stevens has fine-tuned his artistic voice as a landscape painter, flirting in and along the edge of abstraction and taking the play of shape, light and shadow to an extreme. When creating his pieces, Stevens has more interest in how the quality of light falls upon and illuminates forms than in whether or not these forms narrate a story. Adjusting his rules as the paintings approach abstraction, Stevens daringly chooses more arbitrary colors and expressively manipulates spatial relationships. By using methods other than traditional Renaissance perspective to create depth, he alludes to unknown dimensions beyond our familiar scope. Stevens has said, "I like to find abstraction in reality and reality in abstraction", clearly demonstrated as even his most radical departures have a convincing probability. "I admit to being a romantic;" says Stevens, "a sense of mystery feels more real to me than something easily defined."
Stevens has been painting full-time since receiving his Bachelor of Fine Arts from Aquinas College in 1982. A native of West Michigan, Stevens has exhibited extensively through the years, with representation in galleries across the country. He was featured in a one-person exhibition at the Grand Rapids Art Museum during the summer of 2000. Widely collected throughout the United States, his paintings are included in over sixty corporate and three hundred private collections.
"Our predominantly non-indigenous culture has defined land as a commodity which primarily exists for the human species. I carry the sense that the landscape is still essentially wild and that wild is where the landscape's true nature remains even when developed by man. I need the seemingly random order of wilderness to find the poetry for my work. It is the lifeblood of my art." - R. Stevens
Rick Stevens • Statement
My work may be seen as an open window to other realms. Its visual vocabulary has evolved from years of painting the landscape. Although I no longer consider myself a landscape painter nature continues to be my muse. I think of nature as a continuous flow of shapes and patterns of energy that has, or more precisely is, an intelligent force. Most modern day physicists will tell us that all the forces and particles in nature are one, just different ripples on the ocean of consciousness: a Unified Field.
While acknowledging a debt to the abstract expressionists I don’t consider myself ‘of that school’. That movement tended to focus our attention upon the work as a thing in itself, identified with the art-process. While I wish to stay true to the modernist idea of process-oriented art, behind my shapes and colors on the picture surface there is always another realm, another order of meaning, however abstract that meaning may be.
A sense of structure is important to me, but I avoid strong divisions. I require a certain ‘fluidity’ where everything is flowing into the next thing. My compositions are infused with an overall light that is all-inclusive. This doesn’t allow anything to be read as separate from the whole. There is diversity, just like in the natural world, but there is an underlying unity that is apparent. I sometimes use preliminary sketches as beginning compositions for paintings and pastels. Much of my process is improvised, allowing the work to evolve organically.
Rick Stevens • Biography
Education
1982Bachelor of Fine Arts, Aquinas College, Grand Rapids, Michigan
1979-1981
Kendall College of Art & Design, Grand Rapids, Michigan
1977-1979
Grand Rapids Community College, Grand Rapids, Michigan
Selected Exhibitions
2010
Mark Gallery, "Luminous Terrain," Solo Exhibition, Englewood, New Jersey
Hunter Kirkland Contemporary, "Between Connections," Solo Exhibition, Santa Fe, New Mexico
2009
Hunter Kirkland Contemporary, "Picture Music," Solo Exhibition, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Gallery KH, "Invoking the Unknown," Solo Exhibition, Chicago, Illinois
Hunter Kirkland Contemporary, "Annual Show of New York," Group Exhibition, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Mark Gallery, "Rhythms of Nature," Group Exhibition, Englewood, New Jersey
2008
Hunter Kirkland Contemporary, "Diverging Elements," Solo Exhibition, Santa Fe, NM
Gallery KH, "Directional Developments," Solo Exhibition, Chicago, IL
Mark Gallery, "Rhythms of Nature," Group Exhibition, Englewood, New Jersey
2007
Hunter Kirkland Contemporary, "Evolving Structures," Solo Exhibition, Santa Fe, NM
2006
Hunter Kirkland Contemporary, "Emerging Balance," Solo Exhibition, Santa Fe, NM
2005
LaFontsee Galleries, “objective-nonobjective,” Two-Person Exhibition, Grand Rapids, Michigan
2004
LaFontsee Galleries, “63 Years and Painting,” Three-Person Exhibition, Grand Rapids, Michigan
2003
LaFontsee Galleries, “Holiday Muse,” Group Exhibition, Grand Rapids, Michigan
Edgewood Orchard Gallery, Featured Artist, Fish Creek, Wisconsin
LaFontsee Galleries, “Natural Code,” Four-Person Exhibition, Grand Rapids, Michigan
Montage, “Beaver Island Perspective,” Solo Exhibition, Beaver Island, Michigan
Hankins Gallery, “New Paintings,” Solo Exhibition, Lansing, Michigan
LaFontsee Galleries, “LaFontsee Galleries’ Fifteenth Anniversary Celebration,” Group Exhibition, Grand Rapids, Michigan
2001
LaFontsee Galleries, "Common Ground," Three-Person Exhibition, Grand Rapids, Michigan
2000
Hankins Gallery, “Light and Reflection,” Solo Exhibition, Lansing, Michigan,
Michael FitzSimmons Decorative Arts, “Sympathetic Resonance,” Group Exhibition, Chicago, Illinois
Grand Rapids Art Museum, “Rick Stevens: Mindscape-Landscape,” Solo Exhibition, Grand Rapids, Michigan
Honors / Awards
2003
Festival Award, “Festival Visual Arts Competition,” Grand Rapids Art Museum, Grand Rapids, Michigan
2001
First Place Festival Award, “Festival Visual Arts Competition,” Grand Rapids Art Museum, Grand Rapids, Michigan
1999
Best of Show, "11th Annual Juried Exhibition," Holland Area Arts Council, Holland, Michigan
1998
Best of Show, "West Michigan Regional Competition," Lowell Area Arts Council, Lowell, Michigan
1997
Artist-in-Residence, Arcadia National Park, Maine
Artist-in-Residence, Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, Porter, Indiana
Brickley Delong Award, "Regional Competition," Muskegon Museum of Art, Muskegon, Michigan
Perugino Award (First Place), "A Renaissance Garden," Grand Rapids Art Museum, Grand Rapids, Michigan
1996
First Place, “2nd Annual Juried Exhibition,” Franciscan Center, Lowell, Michigan
Second Place, “Holland Friends of Art Annual Competition,” Holland, Michigan
Best 2-D Award, Lowell Area Arts Council Annual Competition, Lowell, Michigan
Purchase Award, "Festival Visual Arts Competition," Grand Rapids Art Museum, Grand Rapids, Michigan
1995
Best of Show, “Holland Friends of Art Annual Competition,” Holland, Michigan
Henry Witt Buick Painting Award, “Regional Competition,” Muskegon Museum of Art, Muskegon, Michigan
Artist-in-Residence, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, Empire, Michigan
1994
Saginaw County Purchase Award, “State of the Arts Annual Exhibition,” Saginaw, Michigan
First Place, Premier Collection, WGVU-TV Auction, Grand Rapids, Michigan
Artist-in-Residence, Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, Wisconsin
Artist-in-Residence, Isle Royale National Park, Isle Royale, Michigan
1991
Second Place, “Holland Friends of Art 28th Annual Competition,” Holland, Michigan
1988
Friends of Art Award, “Regional Competition,” Muskegon Museum of Art, Muskegon, Michigan
1987
Second Place, "Celebration: A Festival of Religious Arts," Grand Rapids, Michigan
1986
First Place, "Winterfest," Holland, Michigan
First Place, "Celebration: A Festival of Religious Arts," Grand Rapids, Michigan
1984
Festival Award and City Purchase Award, "Festival Visual Arts Competition," Grand Rapids Art Museum, Grand Rapids, Michigan
Best of Show, "Art in the Park," Birmingham, Michigan
1983
Best of Show and Best Display, "Ramparts: Affairs of the Arts," Grand Rapids, Michigan
