KURT STEGER
Kurt Steger makes art that is of service, intended for healing our inner nature. Part woodworker, part ritual guide, Steger believes that it is our job on this earth to step into our brilliance and his job as an artist to facilitate that with objects and images.
His large-scale public commissions are sacred spaces as well as the location of healing rites. His "Demon Quelling Implements" are prickly, menacing, hand-held weapons that are as tools for elevating consciousness; and his "Gravitational Constructions" are wooden contraptions that resemble engines of Medieval warfare. Over time, the latter generate zen-like maps-on-paper: simple-yet-beautiful images that bring our focus into the moment of a single drip of frozen ink.
Steger is active in the Men's Movement and is interested in the shamanic role that the contemporary artist can embody in today's culture. No matter their diversity of material and method over the last 20 years, all of Steger's works employ a sense of motion, power, rugged sensitivity, and a sense of humor. His most current output is obsessed with ephemerality -- sometimes self combusting in ritualistic ceremonies that incorporate fire and burial -- inspiring viewers to wake up, release their sense of denial, and heal.
Kurt Steger's work has been exhibited throughout the United States. He has received many public art commissions and was recently awarded the NYFA Fellowship Grant. Steger lives and works in New York State.
AWARDS
2017 NYFA Fellowship Grant
PUBLIC ART COMISSIONS
2010 The Elders, Public Commission Traffic Circle, Grass Valley, CA
2008 Emergence, Public Commission Reichmuth Park, Sacramento, CA
2006 Reflections, Public Commission Sacramento City Hall, Sacramento, CA
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2018
Aftermath: Fred Giampietro Gallery, New Haven, CT (two-person show, January)
2017
Meltdown: Drawing Rooms, Jersey City, NJ
Pending: Governor's Island Art Fair, New York, NY
Pending: An installation at ODETTA Gallery, Brooklyn, NY (during Armory Week)
2016
Scribing the Void: ODETTA Gallery, Brooklyn, NY (solo show)
Scribing the Void: Real Art Ways, Hartford, CT (solo show)
RECLAIMED: ArtHelix, Brooklyn, NY (solo show)
FLUX Art Fair: with ODETTA Gallery, Marcus Garvey Park, Harlem, NY
New Works: Randall Scott Projects, Baltimore, MD (solo show)
2015
Structures: a group show curated by Keith Schweitzer, Manny Cantor Center, NY, NY
2014
Lodge, City Drift, Portland, ME
Lodge, ArtHelix, Brooklyn, NY
2012
Aftermath, Artifact, New York, NY
Sculpture and Recent Works, Les Yeux de Monde, Charlottesville, VA
2011
Burden Boat Project, Smithsonian Museum, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC
Silent Nature, Olin Hall, Roanoke College, Salem, VA
2010
From the Forest Floor, Selden Gallery, Norfolk, VA
2009
Primal States and Portals, Perspectives Gallery, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA
Burden Boat Project, Perspectives Gallery, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA
2008
Mixed Response SDFA Gallery at The Jacksonville Center for the Arts Floyd, VA
2006
Confluence of Form, Columbus Cultural Arts Center, Columbus, OH
Resurface, Quicksilver Mine Company, Forestville, CA
2005
Rise & Fall, Site-specific installation, Gallery 131, Grass Valley, CA
(R)evolution, Gallery 555, Oakland Museum of California at City Center, Oakland, CA
2003
Wingspan, Site-specific work, Foresight Foundation, Haines Gallery, Nevada City, CA
2002
Weight of Time, Julie Baker Fine Art, Grass Valley, CA
2001
Mixed Media Sculpture, Sonoma Museum of Visual Art, Santa Rosa, CA
1999
Sculpture, Sagato Garo Gallery, Sacramento, CA
1998
Mixed Mediums, Northern California Center of the Arts, Grass Valley, CA
1997
Walking Stick Project, Cultural Arts Council of Sonoma County, Santa Rosa, CA
Zen At Hand, The Artful Eye, Healdsburg, CA
1996
Water and Wood, The Quicksilver Mine Company, Sebastopol, CA
Ancestral Witness, Arts Guild of Sonoma, Sonoma, CA
1995
Altars To The Earth, Ren Brown Collection, Bodega Bay, CA