Stephen D'Onofrio
Biography
My work explores the relationship between physical spaces and the objects we fill them with. Often focusing on typical domestic decor and household ornaments, the work makes these inherently empty objects into simplified symbols and patterns that can then be rearranged and compressed to carry a formal sensibility. Currently, my work has concerned with the idea of the painting as an ornament, with stock subjects of landscape, still life, and portraiture becoming knickknacks. I distill, consolidate, and appropriate the overwhelming amount of generic design aesthetics in the commercial decor market when working. Rather than fight the inherent kitschiness of this visual language, I embrace the imagery so the work can, in turn, become a critique of the subject it is representing.
His new body of work begins to pull apart the images of the commercial art and design industry that my work has been recently driven by. In these works, I continue to use the classical composition of still life, but instead of taking a passive approach to displaying these images, I am examining them through dissections and colliding juxtapositions. The new paintings expand their reach of what they are pulling from, looking at popular gradients and color combinations, to images evocative of logos and signage.
A field study for collecting and acquiring the images and pop patterns of today’s commercial world brings them back to my still-life composition for further examination.
