In August 2023 I was invited to attend an artist residency at the International Center for the Arts in Monte Costello di Vibio, Italy. The residency was unique in that it was organized through The Poor Farm Experiment residency program based in Wisconsin. The goal of this residency is to “gather artists through intentional actions that explore the contingent nature of hosting and gathering in rural environments, locating the fleeting and the reverberating substances particular to the moment of temporary, intentional assembly.” The residency culminated in an exhibition in one of the oldest medieval buildings in the town. The interior of the space contained tall, arched niches. The medieval hillside town was full of layers of undulating terracotta roof tiles, terraced landscapes, and earth tones. I created a painting to be hung within the length of a niche on watercolor paper that evoked the structure and color of the curved tiles and stone that permeate the town. The niche became like an altar, elevating and accentuating the paired down elements in the painting, intertwining the gestural with the structural.

Weeks Gallery at Jamestown Community College
Kaleidoscopic
February 4 – March 25, 2022
Virtual Tour
The Week’s Gallery is thrilled to present “Kaleidoscopic”, celebrating the works of Jenny Kemp, Richard Garrison, Sara Baker Michalak, and Stephanie McMahon. Much like the complex patterns of colors and mix of elements in a kaleidoscope, the work in this exhibition creates a multifaceted experience in color, painterly marks, and linear arrangements. Seeking to highlight the complexities and subtleties of color, these four artists use paint, animation and collage to reshape how we perceive abstraction.

NEWS:
Galerie Plan d.
Stephanie McMahon and Kevin Wixted
Abstract by Nature
March 11th - April 3rd, 2022
Opens March 11th, 8pm
Düsseldorf, Germany

New Art Examiner

Gazebo Gallery
Outdoor Painting Installation
May 1st, 2021 Kent, OH
New Art Examiner

Southern Tier Biennial
9/25-11/6 Opening September 25th 5-7pm, 110 West State St. Olean, NY

Real Tinsel Gallery
Hydroponics
Jonathan Faber, Nina Rizzo and Stephanie McMahon
Milwaukee, WI
September 10th-Oct 24th 2021

Kunstpunkte Düsseldorf
August 21st and 22nd 2021
Mindener Strasse 33a, Düsseldorf Germany
samstags 14:00 bis 20:00 Uhr
sonntags 12.00 bis 18:00 Uhr

One Day Event on July 17th 1-6pm (Rain date July 18th)
6405 Palmiter Rd., Alfred Station, NY

Stephanie McMahon, Jason Green, Nina Rizzo, Patrick Brennan and Amanda Oglesbee present an outdoor display of artwork commemorating the 40th anniversary of The Ring of Trees planted by Bill Parry and Amy Purcell in 1981.


Local Horizon is an artistic homage to the 40th anniversary of Bill Parry and Amy Purcell’s 1981 land artwork, Ring of Trees, in Alfred Station, NY. Stephanie McMahon, Jason Green, Nina Rizzo, Patrick Brennan and Amanda Oglesbee will present paintings and sculpture in conversation with the concepts and observations present in this work and the surrounding environment in a public opening event at the Ring of Trees site and surrounding landscape.

In 2009, Stephanie McMahon and Jason Green moved into their house in Alfred Station, NY that was built by the artist Bill Parry in 1972. Upon moving in, they were presented with a document and photograph about the Ring of Trees artwork located on the property. Created by Amy Purcell and Bill Parry in 1981, the Ring of Trees is an artwork that reveals nature’s continuous time element and life cycles. The document states that the artists and future property owners should maintain the ring of trees, experience and document the changes and communicate these to others. Today, the original circle of pines remains largely intact, fully grown and the center remains clear. This collaboration is one of the lasting projects that sculpted and shaped the local landscape within the longstanding artistic community of Alfred, NY. Over the years, the property also contained many outdoor sculptures and earthworks that were integrated into the terrain. The history that shaped this environment, the legacy Bill Parry left behind and the sense of wonder he instilled in his work and artistic endeavors planted the seed for a new event to take place. On the 40th anniversary of this project McMahon and Green invited three other artists who have a connection to the landscape to pay tribute to the work in a one-day celebration open to the public. McMahon will install a series of paintings within the Ring of Trees and Green, Rizzo, Brennan and Oglesbee will present works in various locations throughout the property. All artists share an affinity with the landscape through diverse approaches ranging from abstraction to representation. This event is a continuation of the intentions of the original work, reflecting the spirit of the Ring of Trees and the surrounding landscape.

This project is made possible with funds from the Decentralization Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature and administered by Tri-County Arts Council.

Roberts College Davison Art Gallery
Rochester, NY
Solo Exhibition
August 24th - November 18th (no opening reception)
Gallery Hours Saturday 1-4 by Appointment
Contact Gallery Director Joanna Poag to schedule poag_joanna@roberts.edu

Warm Front (Open Window)

Windows impart a sense of longing and invite contemplation. My paintings nod toward the modernist grid, abstract expressionism and color field painting, while creating a distinct playful sensibility that is calculated yet open to new discoveries.

Open Window is the title of this body of work that explores visual and formal structures through abstract painting. An open window acts as a threshold, creating the potential to move through multiple spaces. In the digital realm, windows are virtual layers where illuminated images can easily be built and deconstructed in transparent, overlapping edits. In painting, the picture plane is yet another element that can be restated or permeated. An open window is an invitation to explore one’s environment and the sensory experiences perceived between two distinct spaces. It takes on new meaning during quarantine as a way to air out the confines of an interior space and a place to gaze and daydream about visiting destinations beyond our own home. These paintings are informed by places visited and the connections between these memories and being present in the act of painting. Warm Front connects the language and sensation of color to a bodily experience of place. Through painting I imagine, invent and explore fluid spaces, suggestive forms, color relationships, and gesture.

Grids, color fields and shapes referencing textiles, frames, and natural forms populate this body of work. Much like a window allows light to pass through, these oil paintings make use of translucent layers of luminous paint. Smooth surfaces allow brushstrokes and color to have a vibrant presence with very little material body. I explore form and color in a physical way, embracing the gestural brushstroke as a reference to the immediacy of the moment and the presence of the body. Directional movement, speed, texture and space are sensually described from the arc of a sweeping brush stroke, a small flick of the wrist in a field of color, or linear elements weaving in and out of one another. Veils of color are dissolved by small gestures, causing layers underneath to push forward. The compression and abbreviation of information create a “cut and paste” sensibility that contrasts this immediacy with measured adjustment. In these paintings, shapes simultaneously move in front of and behind other elements, disrupting space. Organic shapes cluster and drape suggesting associations to both indoor textiles and outdoor plant life. Images appear as if it is still forming or caught between two spaces. The paintings oscillate between a reference and a visual experience.

ENVELOPE

Online at Drawer curated by Essex Flowers
July 20th - August 9th

Drawer

Ally Caple, Carolina Fusilier, EJ Hauser, Heather Benjamin, Ilana Savdie, Janine Polak, Jessica Langley, Jonathan Ehrenberg and Maria Rapoport, Linnea Vedder, Mira Dancy, Mónica Palma, Paul Branca, Rachel Domm, Rachel Eulena Williams, Ruby Sky Stiler, Rufus Tureen, Sean McCarthy, Sojourner Truth Parsons, Stephanie McMahon, Timothy H. Lai.

Painting as Is
Fosdick-Nelson Gallery at Alfred University
Beverly Acha, Julia Benjamin, Henry Chapman, Adam Henry, Dana Lok, Stephanie McMahon, James Miller, Bridget Mullen, Alice Tippit, Owen Westberg, Roger White, and Tim Wilson
January 31st - February 24, 2020
Opening: Friday, January 31st, 6-8 pm
Curated by Tim Wilson

Lecture at The University of Texas at Austin
Monday September 30th, 4pm

Der Greif
Posted by Ellen Bahr for Der Greif Artist Blog Series

Layer Mask
Fosdick Nelson Gallery at Alfred University
Ellen Bahr, Amy Brener, Melissa Brown, Whitney Hubbs, David Kennedy Cutler, Tatiana Kronberg, Micheal Mahalchick, Lydia McCarthy, Stephanie McMahon, Linda Sormin, Ryan Wallace
September 13 - October 18, 2019
Opening: Friday, September 13, 6-8 pm
Curated by Lydia McCarthy

Transparent Factors in Form and Content at Northern Illinois University Art Museum Through February 15th, 2019
I will lecture on my work at Northern Illinois University on Feb. 4th. 6:15pm Lecture Info

Small Gestures at Heaven Gallery in Chicago with Nina Rizzo and Gianna Commito
Opening: Friday, February 1st, 2019 7-11pm
Gallery Talk: Saturday. Feb. 2nd, 1:00

BLOUIN ARTINFO
Artsy

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