Steve
Boksenbaum
The
works in Steve Boksenbaum's "Bokse Art"
exhibition represent an evolution of his paintings
over the past 3 - 4 years. Changes in his personal
life, loss of close friends and family members, alteration
of his spiritual sensibilities, and full time work
forced him to reconsider his approach to painting.
Boksenbaum was also influenced stylistically by his
son and studio-mate, Lorin, and by visits from Adam
Maeroff, the street painter from down the lane.
Boksenbaum has abandoned an obsessive pursuit of detail
in favor of gesture and impression. Using limited
palattes of oil color, Boksenbaum slaps shapes around
until they resemble the photographic scene he chooses
as an armature for an atmosphere of paint. He picks
ordinary scenes to avoid any implication of history
or meaning, randomly snapping pictures while on his
way home from work or on errands. He gets anonymous
people and cars, mostly between Oakland and Squirrel
Hill. The scenes of people walking are pedestrain
art.
A painting can be stared at indefinitely, but Boksenbaum
wants his to retain a sense of instance, like a glance,
or the after-image on the eyelids. Boksenbaum wants
to capture in paint that moment when light stimulus
on the optic nerves transforms into perception and
approaches recognition. He looks behind that moment
to discern what precedes it, expecting a reality more
raw than physical senses allow. The image is amorphous
and ambiguous. Figure merges with ground. The visual
effect more accurately resembles his astigmatism and
presbyopia.
"Bokse Art" is dedicated to the memory of
Richard Callner, the man who taught Boksenbaum how
to paint. He passed away August, 2007. Boksenbaum
alos dedicates the exhibition to the memory of his
uncle, Elliot Twery, an early influence on his artistic
development.
Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Steve Boksenbaum earned
his Bachelor's and Master's degrees from Tyler School
of Art in Philadelphia with majors in painting and
printmaking. Additional studies included a year at
the Specialist Printmaking Programme of Brighton Polytechnic
in Brighton, England, and certification in art education
at Carlow University in Pittsburgh. He has exhibited
work coast to coast in the United States and great
Britain and is represented in private and public collections
in the U.S. and Europe. His paintings have been reproduced
in books and magazines, including Jersey Diners, by
Peter Genovese, Diners of Pennsylvania by Brian Butko
and Kevin Patrick, and the Medical Journal of Rhode
Island. He is a member of the Associated Artists of
Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh Watercolor Society.
Recognizable imagery is merely a template for play
with the media Boksenbaum uses. He gathers images
photographically, which removes them one step from
reality and into the timeless two dimensional realm.
From there, Boksenbaum reconstructs them as
broad geometric areas and work in layers of paint,
each layer refining the areas and complementing the
colors. The effect is an atmosphere of paint, another
step away from the original reality and into a redefined
universe. In this manner, Boksenbaum can stop the
process at any completed layer of paint and accept
the amount of detail at that point. Some paintings
are vague and remote while other approach verisimilitude.
Boksenbaum's most recent paintings are worked from
a tiny half megapixel digital camera. The lack of
photographic detail forces him to improvise, protecting
from an obsession with detail. The images are now
more obscure, but maintain the essence of the visual
experience of realism. Visually they are more honestly
reflective of Boksenbaum's astigmatism.
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