Masks & Mirrors: New Work by William Stoehr
To truly experience William Stoehr's body of work in Masks and Mirrors, the viewer must be willing to succumb
to a frontier of emotion and take part in the journey. Upon approach, the mixed media canvases of ethnically
diverse women's faces close-up are arresting, even discomforting, as their gazes pierce the room and confront
the viewer. Each expression captures a single moment, but their eyes tell a story, engaging the audience in a
spectrum of emotional and intellectual responses. What the viewer sees, (fragility, strength, resentment,
resolve, loneliness, confidence, insecurity and perseverance) is often a reflection of their own personal
experience.
The honesty revealed in Stoehr's paintings is conveyed in a collision of contemporary realism and abstract
expressionism. Spontaneous rhythms of bold brushwork, drips and gestural marks fill the canvases edge to
edge, creating a tension that magnifies the energy with which he works. Layered washes of monotone shades
are slashed with intense color. And yet, Stoehr portrays the details of women's facial structure with expert
precision, emphasizing the eyes as the portals to their stories.
About his work, Stoehr expresses, "I try to connect with the viewer by probing the neural mechanisms we use
to interpret visual information. With a caricature-like face, vague or illusive expression and uncertain context, I
hope to provoke viewers into completing these portraits with their own mental image and then to superimpose
their own feelings. I find that I elicit questions concerning seduction, power, violence and guilt simply by letting
the viewer complete the narrative."
Space Gallery 765 Santa Fe Drive Denver CO 80204
Summer's End: See these shows before the season ends
By Michael Paglia of Westword Thursday, Sep 1 2011
Paired with Dissection & Deregulation is William Stoehr: Masks & Mirrors, a major show of portraits installed in
the large, double-height back gallery. Stoehr, who had worked for National Geographic on its worldwide
mapping project for most of his career, turned to painting full-time just a few years ago. His works are
nominally representational; in this case, he fills the canvases with enormous portraits of women's faces.
However, his painterly techniques originate in abstraction, and his lively surfaces are covered in scuffs, rub-
outs, smears and runs of pigment. To create his pieces, Stoehr uses charcoal and acrylic paint that he applies
— or removes — with everything from brushes and sponges to sandpaper, steel wool, knives and rags.
The resulting paintings are dark and moody, with lots of black and metallic silver, which gives them an unusual
luminosity, like moonlight, that's especially noticeable as they catch or absorb the light, depending on the color.
The women's faces — one per panel — are cropped close so that their hair, especially on the tops of their
heads, is cut out, making the features of their faces the dominant part of the pictures. Apparently, Stoehr
begins with a drawing that he then covers with paint. In a few, he goes in again with charcoal in order to clarify
the details of the portraits. Taken all together, the show is gorgeous and stopped me in my tracks as I entered
the back gallery at Space.
To truly experience William Stoehr's body of work in Masks and Mirrors, the viewer must be willing to succumb
to a frontier of emotion and take part in the journey. Upon approach, the mixed media canvases of ethnically
diverse women's faces close-up are arresting, even discomforting, as their gazes pierce the room and confront
the viewer. Each expression captures a single moment, but their eyes tell a story, engaging the audience in a
spectrum of emotional and intellectual responses. What the viewer sees, (fragility, strength, resentment,
resolve, loneliness, confidence, insecurity and perseverance) is often a reflection of their own personal
experience.
The honesty revealed in Stoehr's paintings is conveyed in a collision of contemporary realism and abstract
expressionism. Spontaneous rhythms of bold brushwork, drips and gestural marks fill the canvases edge to
edge, creating a tension that magnifies the energy with which he works. Layered washes of monotone shades
are slashed with intense color. And yet, Stoehr portrays the details of women's facial structure with expert
precision, emphasizing the eyes as the portals to their stories.
About his work, Stoehr expresses, "I try to connect with the viewer by probing the neural mechanisms we use
to interpret visual information. With a caricature-like face, vague or illusive expression and uncertain context, I
hope to provoke viewers into completing these portraits with their own mental image and then to superimpose
their own feelings. I find that I elicit questions concerning seduction, power, violence and guilt simply by letting
the viewer complete the narrative."
Space Gallery 765 Santa Fe Drive Denver CO 80204
Summer's End: See these shows before the season ends
By Michael Paglia of Westword Thursday, Sep 1 2011
Paired with Dissection & Deregulation is William Stoehr: Masks & Mirrors, a major show of portraits installed in
the large, double-height back gallery. Stoehr, who had worked for National Geographic on its worldwide
mapping project for most of his career, turned to painting full-time just a few years ago. His works are
nominally representational; in this case, he fills the canvases with enormous portraits of women's faces.
However, his painterly techniques originate in abstraction, and his lively surfaces are covered in scuffs, rub-
outs, smears and runs of pigment. To create his pieces, Stoehr uses charcoal and acrylic paint that he applies
— or removes — with everything from brushes and sponges to sandpaper, steel wool, knives and rags.
The resulting paintings are dark and moody, with lots of black and metallic silver, which gives them an unusual
luminosity, like moonlight, that's especially noticeable as they catch or absorb the light, depending on the color.
The women's faces — one per panel — are cropped close so that their hair, especially on the tops of their
heads, is cut out, making the features of their faces the dominant part of the pictures. Apparently, Stoehr
begins with a drawing that he then covers with paint. In a few, he goes in again with charcoal in order to clarify
the details of the portraits. Taken all together, the show is gorgeous and stopped me in my tracks as I entered
the back gallery at Space.
