CLINTEL STEED: RECENT PAINTINGS
Wednesday, April 10th - May 4th
Clintel Steed’s students report that he urges them to “paint your truth.” It’s an approach that he himself follows, but Steed’s truth, as a visually sophisticated Black man in the United States, is complicated. He is a virtuoso painter whose work is at once responsive to the instability of the present moment, informed by the art of the past, and inflected by intense emotion. His truth is triggered by such diverse stimuli as the inequities and traumatic events of the present day, the long history of Black people, the relationship of men and women, parenthood, joy, tragedy, and more. Steed expresses his passionate feelings through potent metaphors, in purely painterly terms, through expressive paint handling and vibrant hues, commanding our attention with unignorable imagery, urgent facture, and ambiguous images that provoke multiple associations and interpretations.