Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 2
Brian Keith StephensMiss you my dear friend2023
2023
$19,500
£14,944.39
€17,175.95
CA$27,388.71
A$30,653.02
CHF 16,045.76
MX$372,378.59
NOK 203,740.37
SEK 192,263.84
DKK 128,162.81
About the Item
"How to capture the past, present and future at the same time; this is at the center of my work as an artist and as a father, son, friend and lover. As we navigating our daily lives, we must face thoughts, anxieties, joys and emotions from all three of these tenses, and often at the same time. Seemingly opposite emotions -- lust, hatred, desire, love, pride, inhibition -- exists simultaneously between these moments in time. For some of us, some emotions outweigh others, grabbing our attention and transfixing our minds, sometimes taking over the way we live and breathe. For myself, the emotions that occupy my mind and capture my energy are that of love, desire, and the fear of hurt or disappointment. And so, at the center of my work are these forceful emotions--they guide my hand to paint and my heart and mind to live. My work explores the emotions that guide us, that pull us and push is and ultimately define who we are, in relation to others and to ourselves.
Lately, what I have been most interested in capturing is how alternative perceptions of one’s identity can change the effect these daily emotions. My work speaks to this in two mediums: oil paintings and collage/installation. With the first medium, I do this primarily through mystical imagery juxtaposed with figurative technique. I am using oil paints to create this mystical alter-reality where the human is the animal and the animal is the human.
Growing up in Connecticut, I have always found animals as a vessel for depicting human emotion; I believe in many ways animals are capable of expressing human emotions is a way that is both understandable and mysterious and alluring. Like animals, we are all wild and fearful, but unlike animals, we have to live in this world of rules and normativity. My desires, my emotions, are not always able to fit in the place and society I live, but in my art, I can find a place for those outliers to join forces.
I am captivated by the power of my own emotions, the playful desires and the sometimes dangerous energy that is the essence of the human spirit. We love, we hurt, we laugh and we cry -- it’s this fantastic and sometimes frightful spectrum. The ‘contemporary soldier’, a motif represented in my work through oil on canvas, is my own conception of this power we have to love and to hurt, to build and to break. For me the contemporary soldier is child freed from the gaze of the parent or society, it is the spirit, freed. But also faced with the challenge of the future, even as it moves freely from its past.
The other side of my work involves mixed media and collage. For me, collage is a way to breakdown the space in my life between the emotions of love and hate, and between objects that symbolize these polar emotions. Often my collage works carry motifs of feminine, romantic objects, belong perhaps to figures in my life that have held the role of lover, wife, mother, friend. Together, these notes, clothes, fabrics and photos create a kind of alter of admiration for the women in my life who I have loved, have lost and also have gained. The female identity is central in these works; central because so much of that identity is defined by objects. Objects and their associations create myths, and these myths in turn create these identities. Now in the world, the feminine identify is a source of chaos and socio-political unrest. Her manner of clothing herself, her manner of living, her manner of using her body--all these things have become nationally and globally contested issues. With these collages, I use motifs of nostalgia and history, mixed with personal history to create stories, identities with collaged pasts of the mysterious, eternally captivating famine sex. I believe that as humans, no matter the epoch, have always held this mysterious and wondrous fascination with women. While I play a lot with nostalgia, these collages also speak to the irrelevance of time, and the universality of the female sex. Through installation and collage there is a breaking down and rebuilding of this love of the complex and mysterious human relationships that surround me around me.
At the center of my work and life are these fascinations with myth, the spectrum of human passion, our kinship to the spirit of the wild animal, and challenge of balancing the real with the fanciful. We must balance all of this while also navigating the spectrum of time, the web of past, present and future. My art has been and continues to be my outlet for exploring these themes and conjuring up new ones."
- Brian Keith Stephens
- Creator:Brian Keith Stephens (1973, American)
- Creation Year:2023
- Dimensions:Height: 70 in (177.8 cm)Width: 60 in (152.4 cm)
- Medium:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:Boston, MA
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU2629213414192
Brian Keith Stephens
“I have always been intrigued by how humans used animals as vessels for their stories throughout literature and art, how simple animal qualities help depict human emotions in ways that are understandable, mysterious, and alluring. At the center of my work and life are these fascinations with myth, the spectrum of human passion, our kinship to the spirit of the wild animal, and the challenges of balancing the real with the fanciful. My art has been and continues to be my outlet for exploring these themes and conjuring new ones.” – Brian Keith Stephens
About the Seller
No Reviews Yet
Vetted Professional Seller
Every seller passes strict standards for authenticity and reliability
Established in 2016
1stDibs seller since 2023
10 sales on 1stDibs
Typical response time: 5 hours
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Shipping from: Boston, MA
- Return Policy
Authenticity Guarantee
In the unlikely event there’s an issue with an item’s authenticity, contact us within 1 year for a full refund. DetailsMoney-Back Guarantee
If your item is not as described, is damaged in transit, or does not arrive, contact us within 7 days for a full refund. Details24-Hour Cancellation
You have a 24-hour grace period in which to reconsider your purchase, with no questions asked.Vetted Professional Sellers
Our world-class sellers must adhere to strict standards for service and quality, maintaining the integrity of our listings.Price-Match Guarantee
If you find that a seller listed the same item for a lower price elsewhere, we’ll match it.Trusted Global Delivery
Our best-in-class carrier network provides specialized shipping options worldwide, including custom delivery.More From This Seller
View AllNo place for goodbye's
By Brian Keith Stephens
Located in Boston, MA
"How to capture the past, present and future at the same time; this is at the center of my work as an artist and as a father, son, friend and lover. As we navigating our daily lives,...
Category
2010s Animal Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Phone your mother
By Brian Keith Stephens
Located in Boston, MA
As we navigating our daily lives, we must face thoughts, anxieties, joys and emotions from all three of these tenses, and often at the same time.
Seemingly opposite emotions -- lust...
Category
2010s Landscape Paintings
Materials
Cotton Canvas, Wax, Oil
Find me a meadow
By Brian Keith Stephens
Located in Boston, MA
As we navigating our daily lives, we must face thoughts, anxieties, joys and emotions from all three of these tenses, and often at the same time.
Seemingly opposite emotions -- lust...
Category
2010s Animal Paintings
Materials
Cotton Canvas, Wax, Oil
Cool and Calm
By Brian Keith Stephens
Located in Boston, MA
As we navigating our daily lives, we must face thoughts, anxieties, joys and emotions from all three of these tenses, and often at the same time.
Seemingly opposite emotions -- lust...
Category
2010s Animal Paintings
Materials
Cotton Canvas, Wax, Oil
$12,800 Sale Price
20% Off
Good Morning
By Brian Keith Stephens
Located in Boston, MA
As we navigating our daily lives, we must face thoughts, anxieties, joys and emotions from all three of these tenses, and often at the same time.
Seemingly opposite emotions -- lust...
Category
2010s Animal Paintings
Materials
Cotton Canvas, Wax, Oil
Get up to get down
By Brian Keith Stephens
Located in Boston, MA
As we navigating our daily lives, we must face thoughts, anxieties, joys and emotions from all three of these tenses, and often at the same time.
Seemingly opposite emotions -- lust...
Category
2010s Animal Paintings
Materials
Cotton Canvas, Wax, Oil
You May Also Like
What Gets Seen
Located in Atlanta, GA
Sharon Paster is a distinguished San Francisco Bay-area artist Sharon Paster creates her paintings using oil sticks and brushes, a technique that allows her to both draw and paint at...
Category
2010s Modern Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil, Wood Panel
Keani
By Jennifer JL Jones
Located in Fort Lauderdale, FL
Keani, 2023
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media
Materials
Mixed Media, Wood Panel
Price Upon Request
Where Art Though
Located in New York, NY
Oil on canvas
Category
2010s Contemporary Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
There Was a Return Home; A Place I Had Never Been and Always Came From
By Brian Jerome
Located in Philadelphia, PA
being in the moment, living it in. beginning to end. the was, were and will be. all at the same. and its weird.
Category
2010s Abstract Abstract Paintings
Materials
Oil, Acrylic
In a Perfect World
Located in Atlanta, GA
Sharon Paster is a distinguished San Francisco Bay-area artist Sharon Paster creates her paintings using oil sticks and brushes, a technique that allows her to both draw and paint at...
Category
2010s Modern Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil, Wood Panel
Deep Breathing
Located in Atlanta, GA
Sharon Paster is a distinguished San Francisco Bay-area artist Sharon Paster creates her paintings using oil sticks and brushes, a technique that allows her to both draw and paint at...
Category
2010s Modern Figurative Paintings
Materials
Wood Panel, Mixed Media
