May 9

Astrid Stoeppel

Astrid Stoeppel is a minimalist and color field painter, sculptor, and digital artist who has exhibited across Europe and the United States. European countries she has exhibited include Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, France, Switzerland, and Belgium. Astrid has participated in multiple art fairs in New York City and around the world. Notable art fairs include The Other Art Fair in New York, ART BASEL in Miami, Venice Biennale MUSA-Pavilion, Art Miami, and Art on Paper in New York. She has been featured over 30 times in Saatchi Art collections to date. Notable publications include features in London Street Art Design Magazine, ELLE Magazine, and Arts Illustrated.

The paintings range from large forms of abstracted patterns to large or small repetitive circles to streaks of linear color. With variation in tone, compositional balance, and application, no two paintings are alike. There remains a mix between muted pastels and overt bright colors. Many of the paintings are quite large and some can fill up entire wall spaces, creating a sense of monumental proportions, having the viewer overwhelmed with fields of color and patterned form. These complex paintings could have a teacher in color theory pulling their hair because of seemingly endless bending and destruction of academic rules regarding color. Astrid pulls off complementary and analogous colors put together in perfect visual conjunction, disregarding conventional theories on color harmony.

If we compare and contrast two huge paintings such as Large Dot Field! (pictured above) and Wide Colors # 11 (pictured below), we will discover two vastly different approaches which consistently tie into each other regarding relation of negative space to fields of color. Large Dot Field! represents a galaxy of hues executed in an abstracted version of pointillism. Indeed, Georges Seurat would be proud to see the evolution of pointillism converted into an optical illusion which overwhelms a space rather than focusing in on the surface. The large field of dots converge towards the center of the canvas and spatially disperse as edging away from the center rectangular focal point which stretches horizontally. Such a painting reveals the character of how we may interpret relationships between physical space (with the grand size of the painting) with negative space and observations with patterns of color. Wide Colors # 11 in contrast creates minimal negative space and hypnotizes the eye with subtle linear streaks on variation of tone. The mesmerizing painting shows what could be described as harmonic tension. There remains friction within the variation of color divided by strict lines yet held together with the uniformity of pastel overlays. These two grand paintings represent grand design and meditative qualities which can have the viewer overly stimulated on the focal point while relaxed on the use of negative space.

Astrid Stoeppel conveys dynamic, rich paintings which could be interpreted as studies in organizing compositional structure with nothing more than pigment. She creates abstracted fields of what could be described as cerebral landscapes of patterns. The viewer can enjoy the complex formation of unity organized by color schematics rather than clear form and perspective. Astrid helps evolve color field and minimalist painting by breaking down the surface into planes of formatted pattern and intricate design. She impresses upon us the urgency to respect painting as a physical property of flatness and vehicle for manipulation of the eye, not in illusions, but rather in harmoniously composed and elegant displays of pure color appreciation.