Essay: Stephen Chesley

Upstream, 2007

Welded steel

12 x 9 x 4 in

$425

STEPHEN CHESLEY

by Wim Roefs

Stephen Chesley likes to show the drama in the ordinary. When he paints fires in a nocturnal landscape, the impetus is not the need for instant drama but his interest in light, a main source of ordinary drama. The Columbia, S.C., artist focuses on the Southern scene, including the South Carolina landscape. “We have simple, linear beauty,” he says. “It’s a challenge to show people in that the same amount of power as in, for example, Niagara Falls.”

Chesley wants to restore people’s long view. He wants to break the daily hurry with views that are decidedly unhurried. He wants to replace life on the run’s blurred vision of trees with an awareness of real trees.

While Chesley’s scenes are realistic and representative, they often have an abstracted quality. He combines colors of similar values and shuns clearly drawn lines, forcing the viewer to study the soft-edged planes to detect what exactly they represent. Chesley may not paint the trees but the space between the trees, which still results in trees emerging from the canvas.

“I want to incorporate abstraction as a technique, yet have the work read figuratively. My art melds American art like that of the Ashcan School with modernist painting.”

Where abstraction helps Chesley achieve representation in his paintings, in his sculptures, representation helps in shaping abstraction. The compositions often read as abstracts first, and as recognizable forms– wildlife, vegetation, mechanical elements – second. The sculptures’ austere and at times somewhat aggressive qualities remind us that Chesley’s painted landscapes aren’t always idyllic, either, that in them there can be a sense of foreboding.

Mostly, Chesley taught himself how to paint. He picked up clues from Rembrandt; 19th century Americans George Innes, Winslow Homer, James Whistler, and Albert Pinkham Ryder; the Impressionists and Neo-Impressionist George Seurat; Ashcan painters such as Robert Henri and John Sloan; Edward Hopper; and Abstract Expressionists such as Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline, Mark Rothko and sculptor David Smith.

Artist's Statement: Stephen Chesley

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ARTIST'S STATEMENT

The heritage of American landscape painting is well founded by such artist as: George Inness, Edward Hopper, Ralph Albert Blakelock, Albert Pinkham Ryder, and others, who had the ability to infuse elements of solidity,mystery, and poetic emotional content on the painted surface..... The Abstract Expressionist were another group of American painters whose message included a departure from figuration, and the use of mass, color, and abstract technique......... Franz Kline's technique of sweeping bold stokes of black paint derived from observations of steel in snow are and inspiration to use an abstract vocabulary to produce a figurative image ....With history and romanticism,It may be that the South is the last American frontier.

Resume: Stephen Chesley

American,b.1952

EDUCATION
East Carolina University
Greenville, North Carolina.
Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond,Virginia.B.S.1975
Clemson University,
School of Architecture,
Clemson ,South Carolina.M.A.1980

SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Erskine College, Bowie Arts Center
Savannah College of Art and Design
Kennedy Covington Lobdell & Hickman,
Rock Hill, South Carolina
South Carolina State Art Collection
Columbia Museum of Art
Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond,
Charlotte, North Carolina
Pioneer Electronics, New York, New York
National Bank of South Carolina
Southern Bell
Springs Mills, Rock Hill, South Carolina
numerous private collections

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
South Carolina Regional Sculpture Competition,
Aiken County Museum,
Aiken, South Carolina, 2005
"Stephen Chesley",Carolina Galleries,
Fine Art Dealers Association,
Charleston, South Carolina, 2004
"Stephen Chesley", Conn Gallery,
Landrum South Carolina.2004
Sumter Gallery of Art, "Birds" exhibition,
Sumter, South Carolina,2004
"Stephen Chesley", Jackson Gallery of Art,
Aiken, South Carolina,2003
Spartanburg Museum of Art, 2nd Hub Juried,
Spartanburg, South Carolina,2003
"Mit/Ohn Distanz", Joint international exhibition,
Ducati Building, Columbia, South Carolina, 2003
"With Without Distance",
Volksbank, Kaiserslautern, Germany,
Woolmagazine Artist Group, 2003
"In Response"', National Juried Exhibition,
Savannah College of Art and Design,
Savannah, Georgia, 2002
Spartanburg Museum of Art, Hub City juried Exhibition,
Spartanburg, South Carolina, 2001
Cultural Council of Richland and Lexington Counties,
Street Gallery (mural), 2001
Savannah College of Art and Design,
National Juried Exhibition,
Savannah, Georgia, 1999
"Stephen Chesley", Opelika Fine Arts Center,
Opelika Alabama, 1999
Spartanburg Museum of Art,
Spartanburg, South Carolina, 1999
Gertrude Hebert Institute of Art Juried Exhibition,
Augusta Georgia, 1998
Savannah College of Art and Design,
National Juried Exhibition,
Savannah, Georgia, 1998
Oil painters Juried Exhibition,
National Bank of South Carolina, 1989-1998
Savannah College of Art and Design,
National Juried Exhibition,
Savannah, Georgia, 1997
"Terrain" Exhibition, Carrillon Building,
Charlotte, mural 15’x15’, 1997
National Endowment for the Arts,
Southeast Regional Fellowship,
Southeast Center for Contemporary Art,
Winston Salem, North Carolina, 1996
Spoleto Juried Exhibition,
Charleston, South Carolina, 1996
"Landscape Trilogy", Waterworks Visual Arts Center,
Salisbury, North Carolina, 1996
Group Exhibition, Greenville Museum of Art,
Greenville, South Carolina, 1996
Gibbs Art Museum,
Charleston South Carolina, 1996
"The New Landscape", Center of the Earth Gallery,
Charlotte, North Carolina, 1995
Francis Marion College, Florence, South Carolina, 1995
"Southern Range", Converse College,
Spartanburg, South Carolina, 1995
USC Gallery, University of South Carolina,
Sumter, South Carolina, 1995
Spoleto Juried Exhibition,
Charleston, South Carolina, 1994
Anderson Juried Exhibition,
Anderson Museum of Art, 1994
Montgomery Biennial Exhibition,
Montgomery Museum of Fine Art,
Montgomery, Alabama, 1994
"Lure of the Lowcountry",
Gibbs Museum, Charleston, South Carolina, 1994
"Grace and Symbolism",
Nations Bank,
Art in Public Places, Columbia, South Carolina, 1993
"Expressions", Columbia Museum of Art,
Columbia, South Carolina, 1992
South Carolina Arts Commission Triennial,
Columbia South Carolina, 1992
National Juried Exhibition, Montana College Gallery,
Dillion, Montana, 1991
South Carolina Contemporary Images,
Owensboro Museum of Fine Art,
Owensboro, Kentucky, 1991
South Carolina Coastal Watercolor Exhibition,
Charleston, South Carolina, 1991
Springs Mills Juried Exhibition,
Rock Hill, South Carolina, 1990
South Carolina Coastal Watercolor Exhibition,
Charleston, South Carolina, 1989
South Carolina Annual Juried Exhibition,
Columbia, South Carolina, 1988
Southern Graphics Council Exhibition,
Furman University, Greenville, South Carolina, 1988
Springs Mills Juried Exhibition,
Rock Hill, South Carolina, 1988
Retrospective: South Carolina State Art Collection, 1988
Orlando Museum of Art, Orlando, Florida, 1988
Joyce Dickenson Invitational, Florence, South Carolina, 1988
Springs Mills Juried Exhibition,
Rock Hill, South Carolina, 1987
South Carolina Arts Commission Annual Juried Exhibition, Columbia, South Carolina, 1987
National Park Service National Juried Exhibition, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. 1987
South Carolina Arts Commission Annual Juried Show, Columbia, South Carolina, 1986
Springs Mills Juried Exhibition,
Rock Hill, South Carolina, 1986
South Carolina Coastal Watercolor Exhibition,
Charleston, South Carolina, 1985
South Carolina Arts Commission Annual Juried Exhibition,
Columbia, South Carolina, 1985
" Emerging Artist", Columbia Museum of Art,
Columbia, South Carolina, 1981