ROADSIDE ATTRACTION

Paintings by STEPHANIE SCHECHTER

AN ONLINE EXCLUSIVE EXHIBITION

2 October - 28 November 2020

About the Exhibition:

Anthony Brunelli Fine Arts is pleased to feature the work of contemporary realist painter, Stephanie Schechter, throughout October and November. Schechter pays homage to the three-dimensional, human-made world with her stylized sign portraits.

Exhibition Statement:

Stephanie Schechter is a contemporary realist painter known for her bold, stylized depictions of commercial signs. Her paintings will be on view with Anthony Brunelli Fine Arts throughout October and November in an exhibition titled Roadside Attraction. Schechter finds inspiration for her work on road trips through the everyday, American landscape. Her idealized portraits of signs are an ode to the beauty she finds in the three-dimensional, human-made world.

Schechter’s sign series grew out of a love of typography and design, as well as a desire to document history. She majored in Industrial Design at RISD and settled in Rhode Island after college. Soon after graduating, she noticed some of her favorite old buildings were being demolished for new development, which led to an interest in historic preservation. Schechter was also at the beginning of her design career, and soon realized she had more to express than is possible with design alone. She longed to make art and began to use painting as a medium to document the buildings that she loved.

As her painting progressed, she started to hone in on the signs on those buildings. Her love of typography sparked an interest in vintage signs. As her interest in signs grew, she began to see commercial signs as symbolic of more than the words on their surfaces. She now sees these place-markers and advertisements as reminders of a community’s culture and history, the evolution of commerce, design and manufacturing trends, impermanence and obsolescence.

Schechter’s creative process begins with photography. She says “Like everyone else, I’ve seen thousands of signs in my travels, but only certain signs ‘speak to me’. It could be any combination of the typography, the colors, the shadows it casts, the words, the iconic nature of the sign as a local landmark, or a personal connection that attracts me to a particular sign. When I’m back in my studio reviewing my photos, my intuition tells me when I have one that’s ‘asking’ to become the basis for a painting.”

Though her work starts with photography, her paintings are highly edited from their original reference photos. She uses her “designer’s eye” to create powerful compositions that articulate what she finds compelling about her subjects. She removes details such as the rust, dents and peeling paint that occur in real life, and focuses her work on color, three dimensional forms and shadows. Elements are shifted in order to direct the eye. Her meticulous, smooth, hard-edge painting technique combines bold areas of solid color with delicately blended transitions. The resulting body of work is minimalistic and graphic, yet maintains the perception of hyperrealism. The pieces on view in Roadside Attraction embody Schechter’s love of her subjects and poignancy she sees in these often-overlooked treasures.