Stephen Kasner

Stephen Kasner’s paintings operate in between the worlds of spirit and flesh. Working in a large scale and an earthy palette dominated by black and white, his mainly abstract images move the eye using form, texture and an elusive, vaguely hallucinatory optical dynamism. Despite the subtlety of the symbolic images that do sometimes appear, these paintings are essentially emotional and psychological landscapes. Great inky clouds accumulate above shadowy places, and Kasner’s technique itself invites comparison with naturally occurring patterns like lichen, fossilizations, and the leavings of dried-up tide pools. They share a weighty sense of absence, piquing curiosity as to what has or is about to happen there, and their size ineluctably involve the viewer’s body in the unfolding events. - Shana Nys Dambrot, Flavorpill