Kathryn Markel Fine Arts is excited to announce an upcoming exhibition of new paintings by Peter Stephens, titled “You Are My Favorite Work of Art.” It will be the artist’s first solo exhibition with the gallery.

Stephens approaches both the titles of his paintings and the exhibition with a playful lightheartedness. “You Are My Favorite Work of Art" is a nod to Chet Baker’s “My Funny Valentine,” and each painting is titled directly or indirectly from names given to colors by the commercial paint industry. These titles are sometimes amusing, usually evocative, seldom profound, often a bit sexy, and even a little head-scratching at times.

The paintings are produced entirely freehand atop an underlying grid of commercial paint samples. He then approaches and explores color relationships with acrylic paint, line by line. In this body of work, Stephens finds himself especially focused on the phenomenon of optical color blending and subtleties of modulations. His freehand process is integral to the perception of these effects - they appear as the paintings develop.

While there is an intuitive discovery that happens during Stephens’ process, there are deliberate references that contribute to a tapestry of rich cultural histories. Textile and mosaic references are clear, and within each painting, some vignettes evoke places, time, memories, and emotions.

Peter Stephens earned a BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1981 and has since shown his work nationally and internationally. He has held solo exhibitions at Rivalry Projects, Buffalo, NY (2022), David Richard Gallery, New York, NY (2020), and Nina Freudenheim Gallery, Buffalo, NY (multiple years), amongst others. He was most recently included in a solo presentation by Rival Projects at the Untitled Art Fair in Miami, Florida. His work has been placed in private and public collections worldwide and is part of several museum collections, including Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Brooklyn Museum, and Burchfield Penney Art Center. He lives and works in Buffalo, NY.