11 March 2010, 6-8 pm
SoHo Studio Event
STEPHEN SOREFF

For more works by the artist www.studiovisit.info

Stephen Soreff divides his mixed media work, composed essentially of found objects and materials, into five groups that have evolved throughout his career that spans several decades: Crosses, Feathers, Weapons, Angels, and Heads. His works have an iconic quality that derives from the artist’s use of history, myth, legend, and symbolism. The deft handling of objects (both natural and industrial), their arrangement and combination, create a great depth and variety of meanings and messages of personal value to the artist and ultimately distilled by each viewer, they acquire universality.

The studio event on Thursday March 11th is a singular opportunity to view an impressive selection of artworks in the surrounds of the loft space Soreff has occupied in SoHo since the 70s. Small- to large-scale works, both free-standing and hanging on walls, are installed throughout the generously appointed space, and visitors will have access to the artist’s work space, which contains a number of pieces, both finished and in progress. Intimate, contemplative works such as the series of Angels or Men on Wheels co-exist alongside the explosive grandeur and emotion of hanging pieces like Do not be Discouraged, You are not Forgotten or Portrait of the Artist, or the haunting, life-sized installation of Green Men in the studio. Art Historian and critic Phyllis Braff writes, “Often there is a fascinating interaction between object and imagination, and this tends to direct attention to just what the artist would like to reveal: the charged area between real space and mental space.”