July 30, 2020

Serena Stevens at Postmasters Gallery

Serena Stevens takes our realities of quarantine and paints them in an ethereal way that reminds us, there can be beauty in the monotony of the everyday
Published in
Galleries

About the Exhibit - Iowa Dream 

Serena Stevens’s exhibit, Iowa Dream, is currently on view at Postmasters Gallery in Tribeca from July 12 - September 12, 2020. 

Serena Stevens at Postmasters Gallery

After many months of being in quarantine, New York galleries are beginning to open their doors with summer exhibitions.

"There are a lot of people in New York who haven't left and who deserve this gift of an exhibition" - Magda Sawon (Bloomberg News)
Serena Stevens at Postmasters Gallery

Postmasters recommends viewing Steven’s works “ one-on-one...in a real (physical) space.” 

Serena Stevens at Postmasters Gallery
Serena Stevens at Postmasters Gallery
These are “quiet paintings that risk being rendered invisible amidst the digital fog, or suffocated by the frenetic, figurative, pop-infused iconography of art optimized to perform online.” (source
Serena Stevens at Postmasters Gallery

 In Iowa Dream, Steven’s beautifully paints everyday settings in her life, which makes the profound statement that beauty can be seen all around us, despite these new constraints put on all of our lives. 

Serena Stevens at Postmasters Gallery
Serena Stevens at Postmasters Gallery
Steven’s project is about her return to her home of Iowa, and her self-reflection, “marking the changes in her own perspective after her departure from and return to her home.” 
Serena Stevens at Postmasters Gallery
“The young realist painter—who recently returned to her native Iowa after chasing the light in California, New Mexico, and Rhode Island—is at her best in scenes of domestic interiors, watchfully rendered rooms that convey the contradictions of home and the tension between melancholy and intimacy (as seen in “Rocking Chair,” above).” - The New Yorker (source
Serena Stevens at Postmasters Gallery
“I think of home as both a place and a feeling, something both fleeting and everlasting. A source of potential comfort or contempt, a home sinks in its roots while remaining utterly receptible to being uprooted.” Serena Stevens (source
Serena Stevens at Postmasters Gallery
Serena Stevens at Postmasters Gallery

So even though we’ve all been staring at similar scenes for the past five months, the way Stevens translates them on the canvas is more therapeutic than traumatic. 

Serena Stevens at Postmasters Gallery
"If you slow things down, you notice things you hadn't seen before." - Robert Wilson

About the Artist - Serena Stevens 

Serena Stevens received her BFA from Western Illinois University and is currently an Iowa Arts Fellow at The University of Iowa. 

Serena Stevens at Postmasters Gallery
Steven’s work “represents [her] interest in re-contextualizing found and personal images to form narratives reminiscent of life expectations, outcomes, and potential” 
Serena Stevens at Postmasters Gallery

Stevens has a website and Instagram.

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