STEPHEN WESTFALL PRINTS
October 2 - November 16
Artist's Opening Reception
October 2, 5-8 pm

Four sets of prints punctuate the diverse, vibrant visual language of twelve years of work by painter Stephen Westfall. Each collection of prints, defined by the artist’s discerning use of color and clever composition, are further distinguished by the process and material of each of the 4 printmakers. The exhibit includes 2 sets of mono-types, a suite of silk screens, and a collection of lithographs that, when set together, expose one another’s subtleties and draw the viewer to investigate the artist’s reinvention of familiar elements.

Suggesting a grid, map, window, building plan or elevation; each print from the Untitled suite of five silk screens, produced by Donald Sheridan, consists of a single background color and a foreground grid. Upon initial look, Westfall’s allusive, architectonic compositions appear austere. Exploring further, the lines begin to dance; the crisp colors of foreground and background shift from back to front with lively optical energy, and the squares, against our expectation of the grid, don’t align at the corners. The imperfect structure shimmers - Westfall plumbs minimalism and gives it a nudge.

In the Untitled series of monoprints, made at Two Palm Press, Westfall’s grid becomes distilled and doubled, at once shifting to a state of destabilization and perfect balance. The grids glimmer atop one another on the subdued background palate. The lines, saturating the handmade paper, blur and soften in an atmospheric pattern that impresses as a pair of lit windows overlaid.

Returning to a single linear composition on a solid background, Westfall creates a series of lithographs with Jungle Press called The Nines. Using bold, unpredictable colors and off-kilter margins, the artist energizes the reductive composition. Eight rectangles, equal in dimension, stack toward the top of the page and stop precisely one step short. The deceptively simple compositions delight the eye with their playfulness.


In Westfall’s most recent collection of prints, both Untitled series and The Nines are revisited and reinvented. This set of monotypes made at Aurobora in San Francisco this past summer uses grids, stacked rectangles, and flags (all iconography of earlier work) like still life objects in colorful new abstract arrangements. In Lanmark, Waltz, and Miracle Mile Westfall, with known chords, creates surprising compositions.

An exhibition of new paintings by Stephen Westfall will open at Lennon Weinberg on September 25. The exhibit will be up until November 1, for information contact Jill Weinberg Adams at 212.941.0012.