Group Exhibition at Tang Contemporary in Beijing
Curated by Ting Liu
August 5th -September 15th
BLOUIN ARTINFO

Boston Globe review of Abstract Systems

Boston Globe review of Abstract Systems
Art New England review of Abstract Systems
Abstract Systems, Lasell College, Wedeman Gallery, March 23rd-April 12th, 2017

Just finished a two week print workshop at Haystack!

Review by Shana Dumont Garr on New American Paintings Blog, August 3,2016


BUOYED BY COLOR AT STEPHANIE MCMAHON’S SOLO EXHIBITION AT T+H GALLERY

Stephanie McMahon’s first solo exhibition in Boston, and the first painting show hosted by T+H Gallery this year, “Close to Me” reverberates with the saturated colors of summer, from the blazing neon of flower gardens viewed at midday to the cool shadowed tones of the woodlands after rainfall. This contrast, seen throughout the galleries, can be summed up with Earthwork, a dynamic abstraction built with sheer layers of oil paint on panel. Soft-edged shapes work in tandem with more static, geometric forms, and engagingly lush brushstrokes hover in changeable depths of field. – Shana Dumont Garr, Boston Contributor

A unifying impulse in this exhibition is the robust presence of the brush. Arcing through Earthwork are forms that evoke landscape-- made with diluted, earthy tones, they simultaneously evoke clouds and hillsides. These marks summon the qualities of slip (clay suspended in water) that is used to make ceramics, linking the painting to sculptural processes, and to the indeterminate stage before clay is fired. That slippery quality -- in both the literal and the metaphorical sense -- are central to the appeal of this body of work. They are painter’s paintings that also happen to be easy on the eyes.

Like all of the paintings in “Close to Me,” Earthwork offers immersion into the act of mark-making and the experience of pure color. The thin washes and the trails of the brush make the artist’s decisions seem fresh, as though just completed. Another consistent source of tension are how oppositions, such as light and dark, gestural and measured, provocatively vacillate with each other.

McMahon’s focus shifts from pure colorscapes in 2015 to more loose and complex arrangements in 2016. Spritz (2015) and Double Dip (2015) are flush and immediate, with robust, horizontal rhythms. Spritz pops with soaring yellow, blazing orange, and magenta, beaming bands of pigment that slip and blend into each other. It is not simply prismatic, though, as clean-edged lime and yellow forms interrupt the spectrum to create optical effects, not unlike experiencing a James Turrell installation.

In Blue Nude (2016) and Primary Matrix (2016), sharp angles still betray the human touch and coexist with more organic brushwork. These are among the paintings that offer a contemporary take on a collage sensibility, one informed by the digital era. The abrupt bracketing and continuous layering evoke the transposition of multiple open windows on computer screens.

A few works embed grids into otherwise fluid, gestural forms, which may refer to digital systems such as bar codes. The organization of forms has affinity with the ways that people interface with each other and the world around them in the 21st century. However, there is no sense of the distraction or passivity that is often associated with computer screens. Close to Me was robust, bracing, and provided apt metaphors of an era that may be characterized by scanning, simultaneity, and flux.

Painter's Bread and Gradient Child

Close to Me, June 3rd -July 31st 2016
T+H Gallery

Paintings featured on Painter's Bread and Gradient Child

Featured show on Artsy

Memorial Art Gallery Award of Excellence 65th Rochester-Finger Lakes Exhibition. Selected by Michael Rooks, Wieland Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at Atlanta’s High Museum of Art.

Review in City Newspaper

Mention in thevisualartworker blog

My work will be published in the upcoming Northeast issue of New American Paintings

The Belfry, Stephanie McMahon: Terrazza

I am pleased to announce that my work will be included in the Reverol & Co. Contemporary Art booth at SCOPE New York, March 6-9th
SCOPE

Chautauquan Daily

Reverol & Co. Contemporary Art
Opening reception: October 5th 7 - 9 pm

October 5th -November 9th
300 Huguenot St New Rochelle, NY 10801

This summer I was invited to give lectures and workshops at several Universities in China.
Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts, Shenyang, China
Northeast Normal University in Changchun, China
Daqing Normal University, Daqing, China
Science and Technolgy College of Changchun, College of Visual Arts, Changchun, China

Stone Canoe issue # 7
The new issue of Stone Canoe, a journal of arts, literature and social commentary from Syracuse University, is now in print and features one of my paintings.

ArtBridge
A public Installation at Barclays Center, Brooklyn
Sept 20, 2012 - August 2013
CURBED NY Article

Ortlip Gallery

Friday, September 28 – Thursday, November 1
Reception: Saturday, September 29, 7-9 pm
Houghton College
One Willard Avenue
Houghton, New York 14744

Evening Tribune Article

Hornell Arts Walk
Saturday, April 28th, 5-6pm
Steph's Studio
112 Main Street, 2nd Floor, Hornell, NY
5 – 6pm
Paintings and Works on Paper
A jam-packed event featuring some of the most exciting artwork being made in, around and about Hornell. Beginning at 5:00 with my open studio, visit many more events throughout the evening, map will be available at my studio.

July 9-15, 2012
Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts

Hyperallergic
Is The Color Gray Doomed? Review on Hyperallergic of Grey Matter at the Painting Center

patternsthatconnect
work sited on patternsthatconnect