Stephen Alexander Clark earned his MFA from Maryland Institute College of Art and BFA from Calvin University. He has exhibited nationally and regionally, including at Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects in NYC, Wavelength Space in Chattanooga, TN, and Hawk + Hive in Andes, NY.

Stephen lives and works in rural central New York State with his wife and four children. He is Associate Professor of Painting at SUNY Cortland. When not in the studio, he is usually splitting firewood for the winter.

Artist Statement 

Location has always affected my work, with particular interest in exploring ideas related to trace and signs of presence. Specifically, this work seeks to ask what is communicated through that which remains? What markers of time continue and what ones are lost? These questions and others are at the center of Clark’s recent conceptual research and painting practice. 

In the work, seemingly insignificant or overlooked scenes are interrupted, and ‘layered’ with some combination of formal interventions, such as gradients, brushstrokes, or areas of exposed canvas. In others, the pictorial elements rise to the surface, bringing into question the spatial organization of the painted surface. There is an intentional push/pull of the figure-ground relationship that inhabits each work. This functions as a direct visual correlation for the idea that the past and present affect each other and suggests a non-linear reading of time. Like an abandoned house with boarded-up windows, the viewer is invited to question what lies behind. 

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harry littell has taught photography at tompkins cortland community college since 2003. his recent photo books include summit, parts and service and sometimes i just feel like venting.

Artist Statement 

I grew up in the Southern Tier region of new york. I’m drawn to the cities and towns as they struggle to reinvent themselves. There is a theatrical quality to the downtowns in the early morning: quiet streets sculpted by light and shadow, stories written in the facades of buildings, solitary figures engaged in small dramas. Moments of grace and beauty and sadness.