Stanley Casselman rose to art-world fame in an unusual way: he answered the critic Jerry Saltz’s call for a knock-off Gerhard Richter painting. But Casselman’s practice goes far beyond that. He was an established painter of geometric abstraction long before he started creating Richter-like works using a 10-foot squeegee. Since then, he has elaborated on this painting style, making it his own as he searches for logic through abstraction. “Each painting is its own visual story that transcends explanation through language,” Casselman has said. “The process and the result [are] emotion and energy put forth in its rawest and purest form.”
Delicately transforming his own painting practice to reflect the ambient abstraction. Geometric abstraction piqued his interest in the 1980s, and he infused materials including satin ribbon and monofilament paper beneath the painted surface of monochrome works. He also worked in theater and film, creating light installations that visualized the subtleties of perception applied to spectrums of color. Casselman’s mature work was hailed by Saltz—its internal motion is created with acrylic paint or gloss gel medium dragged across the canvas with a squeegee, blended and subtracted with a pallet knife, and textured by ribs. The works evoke strewn confetti and waterfalls as layers of paint peek through, affirming the sublime raw energy of color.
Casselman has exhibited at institutions including Mana Contemporary, Jersey City, New Jersey and Silverman Guild Art Center, New Canaan, Connecticut, among other international galleries. He has also participated extensively in art fairs including Art Aspen, Art Basel Hong Kong, and Scope Basel, among others.
BORN
1963 Phoenix, Arizona
Lives and works in New York
EDUCATION
1985 Bachelor of Arts, Pitzer College, Claremont, California
1984 Richmond College, London, England
SOLO EXHIBTIONS
2019 Labyrinths of Light, curated by Dr. David Anfam, Gazelli Art House, Baku, Azerbaijan
2017 Presence, Jim Kempner Fine Art, New York, NY
Full Circle, Gazelli Art House, London, England (catalogue)
2016 Through Frequencies, Brintz Galleries, Palm Beach, FL
2015 143 miles per second, Jim Kempner Fine Art, New York, NY (catalogue)
The Physics of Surface Tension, curated by Lisa Brintz, Brintz Galleries, Palm Beach, FL
2014 47, Jim Kempner Fine Art, New York, NY
2013 In an Instant, Scott White Contemporary Art, La Jolla, CA
2012 Art 57, curated by Bernhard Schober, Vienna, Austria
1997 Mimi Lawrence Gallery, Los Angeles, California
1995 A.C.E., Vienna, Austria
James White Gallery, Beverly Hills, California
1993 Preiss & Preiss, Vienna, Austria
1989 Gallery Vega, Santa Barbara, California
1986 The Exhibition Space, Maurice-Heyman Fine Art, New York, NY
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2019 God Always Knows, AB Gallery, curated by William Quigley, East Hampton NY
lightBEINGS, collaboration with ThreeAsfour, Peter B. Lewis theater, Solomon R. –
Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
2018 Points of Light in a Nocturnal World, curated by John Newsom, 7 Herkimer Place, -
Brooklyn, NY
2017 The Approach, Gazelli Art House, Baku, Azerbijan
2016 Gold, curated by Lisa Brintz, Brintz Galleries, Palm Beach, FL
2015 The Approach, celebrating Gazelli’s 5th year, Gazelli Art House, London, England
Icons, The Art of Appropriation, Sotheby’s S/2, New York, NY
New Acquisitions, Coral Springs Museum of Art, Coral Springs, FL
Small Works, curarted by Dru Arstark, Jim Kempner Fine Art, New York, NY
2014 Red Tape, Stanley Casselman and Hyo Myoung Kim, curated by Mila Askarova, Gazelli –
Art House, London, England
2013 Summer Group Show: William Glen Crooks, Stanley Casselman, Ross Bleckner, Scott –
White Contemporary Art, La Jolla, CA
2012 Let There Be Light, curated by Mila Askarova, Gazelli Art House, London, England
Summer Group Show, Scott White Contemporary Art, La Jolla, CA
2010 2010 Light Art Biennialprivate light in public spaces, curated by Laura Plana Gracia, -
Linz, Austria
Simulation: R.E.M., curated by Sondra Tannenbaum, Salon Ciel, D’Mai Urban Spa, -
Brooklyn, NY
1999 99 Miller Durazo Fine Art, Los Angeles, California
1994 What’s Next, James White Gallery, Beverly Hills, California
1991 Professors Choice no.4
1990 3 Artist, The International Gallery, Santa Monica, California
1989 Gallery Artists, Gallery Vega, Santa Barbara, California
1988 Professor’s Choice no.3, Lang Art Gallery, Claremont, California
1986 Rough and Tough, Above the Stud Gallery, San Francisco, California
1985 Ink and Clay IX, Cal Polytechnic Institute, Pomona, California
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Borusan Contemporary, Istanbul
Coral Springs Museum of Art
Flint Institute of Arts
Fredrick R. Weisman Art Foundation
Georgia Museum of Art
New Orleans Museum of Art