Stanley Bielen’s small gem-like paintings reflect the objects of daily life: small vases, fruits or flowers grown in his garden. He studies each object intently, drawn to its shape and texture, then uses that attention as a springboard for deliberate abstract marks that celebrate the sensuality of the paint as well as the sensuality of the object. These intense paintings use an economy of masterful strokes to capture the object on the fly. The viewer in drawn in as the abstract surface of thick brushstrokes, color and light suddenly resolves into the pared-down essence of his subject creating an intimate, reflective space.
Artist Statement
“For several decades, the main focus of my work as a painter has been small format still lives - simple arrangements of familiar things, placed on a shelf in natural light. The subject of the paintings being the interaction between object, light, and the enveloping atmosphere of a given day. The comfort of repetition, of returning to limited, familiar variables, has allowed me freedom to shift my attention to the act of painting itself. To explore paints quality and ability to create both an allusion of appearance and simultaneously be satisfying in and of itself.”
Stanley Bielen was born in Rzeszow, Poland. He studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. He currently lives and works in Philadelphia and teaches at the Fleisher Art Memorial of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Bielen's work is part of the collections of the Hirshhorn Museum, CBS Television and Goldman Sachs. He was the recipient of the 2003 Fred and Naomi Hazell Faculty Fellowship at the Samuel S. Fleisher Art Memorial of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Stanley Bielen is represented by Kathryn Markel Fine Arts , an gallery with two locations in Chelsea, New York City