Aaron T Stephan

Stephan was born in Springville, New York in 1974.[4] He holds a BFA from the State University of New York at Purchase (1996) and an MFA from Maine College of Art (2002).[5] He also studied at Amsterdamse Hogeschool voor de Kunsten, State University of New York at New Paltz, and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.[5]

Stephan's work uses humor and wit to look at everyday objects "not as metaphors...but [as] facts."[6][7][8][9] In 2008, as artist-in-residence at Kohler's Arts/Industry program in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, Stephan created the cast iron Flat World/Round Map. It is a reproduction of Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion map but rounded rather than flat.[10] In 2017, during a residency with Locust Projects in Miami, Florida, he made hundreds of cement blocks from scratch, then built a life-sized cement block house from plans found in a 1909 Sears and Roebuck catalog. This exhibit was called Cement Houses and How to Build Them.[11][12] A 2019 work, Intermediate Submittal, shows the house reproduced as a scale model.[13] Stephan has also completed residencies at Yaddo and Edenfred.[5]

Art-World iconography also appears in several of Stephan's works, including Second-hand Utopias (2014) in DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum.[14] It consists of four iconic 20th century sculptures by artists such as Donald Judd, Robert Smithson, and Vladamir Tatlin.[15][16] Similarly, the Untitled Monument series (2020) at Dowling Walsh Gallery in Rockland, Maine consists of cyanotype blueprints depicting failed real-life monuments. Among these are a toppling statue of Vladimir Lenin and the Stonewall Jackson Monument hanging mid-air by a removal crane.[3] Other artwork includes his 2007 Building Houses and Hiding Under Rocks, where Stephan used over 40,000 books to make a square structure with doorway on one side.[17] While the exterior looks like stacks of books, the interior is carved to look like stone blocks.[18]

Stephan has collaborated with life-partner Lauren Fensterstock on multiple projects, including a series of performance dinner parties.[19] In 2016, they teamed up with Portland chef Masa Miyake for a dinner-themed 9-night production titled Inside, Outside, Above, Below and combined cooking, eating, architecture, live building, live music, and video.[20]