BIOGRAPHY
Steven Krueger
www.stevenkrueger.com
kruegerartist@gmail.com
New Jersey-born and Miami-based, Steven Krueger has spent the last four decades traveling and living abroad. His art is multicultural in scope representing a polyphonic chorus of international sensibilities that has become manifest across his work in a variety of mediums.
Largely self-taught he briefly studied painting at the ICS School of Art and the Art League of Alexandria. His interest in painting piqued during visits to Austrian museums while living in Vienna in 1997, and he found himself drawn to masterpieces where traces of the artist’s painting process remained visible. He began painting a year later and has continued to produce works at a prolific pace throughout subsequent moves to Guatemala, Finland, India, Argentina, Spain, Washington DC, and the Dominican Republic.
Rife with allusions to Abstract Expressionism, Art Brute, Cubism, and Fauvism, Krueger’s paintings neither quote nor overturn previous styles but rather funnel their energies into his own translation of human sentiments. He views art as “the skill to document one’s emotions” and emphasizes his desire to elicit emotional response from viewers. The cycle of artistic creation cannot be completed until spectators have internalized and grappled with the personal testimony layered throughout his work.
CV
Exhibitions/Galleries
Affordable Art Fair NYC
Red Dot Miami
Jefferson Street Artists, Falls Church, Virginia
U.S. Embassy Kingston, Jamaica
Art Space, Falls Church, Virginia
Del Ray Artists, Alexandria, Virginia
Studio 26 Gallery, New York
Art Hamptons, New York
Andrews Art Museum, Andrews, North Carolina
Ico Gallery, New York
Montserrat Contemporary Art, New York
Agora Gallery, New York
Gallerie Artfelt, New Delhi, India
Galerie L’Enfant, Washington DC
Galleria E. Pinomaa, Helsinki, Finland
Art View, New Delhi, India
AVA Galleria, Helsinki, Finland
ARC, Helsinki, Finland
Public Galleria, Haapajarvi, Finland
Galleria Varkaus, Finland
Galleria E. Pinomaa, Hanko, Finland
Galerie L’Enfant, Middleburg, Virginia
City Galleria, Hanko, Finland
Helsinki Art Fair, Helsinki, Finland
La Antigua Galeria de Arte, Antigua, Guatemala
Galleria Peru Café, Antigua, Guatemala
El Salon de Te, Guatemala City, Guatemala
Galeria Panza Verde, Antigua, Guatemala
U.S. Embassy Guatemala City, Guatemala
Galeria de Arte El Tunel, Guatemala City, Guatemala
U.S. Ambassador’s Residence, Guatemala City, Guatemala
Studio Gallery, Vienna, Austria
U.S. Embassy, Vienna, Austria
STATEMENT
I think constant change and worldwide cultural exposure influence what I do. Although I do consider my work very American, I like to add International because I spent a great part of my life living abroad. When I began as an artist in 1998, I lived in Vienna, Austria. In 2001 I moved to Washington DC for a year and in September of 2002, I moved to Guatemala City, Guatemala for two years. I believe that is where my painting style developed the most. Guatemala had such a colorful, vibrant culture yet violence and fear were a regular occurrence.
In 2004 I moved to Helsinki, Finland for three years and remained quite active with a couple of Helsinki galleries that also brought the exhibition to other parts of Finland through 2006 and 2007. From Guatemala to Finland was quite a contrast. Finland was a peaceful, tranquil country where Guatemala was not.
After Finland, I packed up the studio and moved to New Delhi, then to Buenos Aires, to Madrid, to DC again, to Santo Domingo, and finally Miami.
What would I like my art to accomplish? I’m not an activist and my art doesn’t contain political gestures. If my art attracts emotional response, then I am doing my job as the artist I want to be. My creations are made with emotion, which changes from painting to painting (happiness, anger, peace, frustration, fear, etc.), so if people react, then I am content.
I believe my art stands out due to its spontaneous nature. I rarely calculate the outcome of a piece. I use paint and other materials with a seemingly reckless abandon. Like I mentioned, emotion takes over once I start to paint.
To me, art is the skill to be able to document one’s emotions. Emotional reactions to art are necessary from the viewer or I feel that we as artists are not doing our job. My goal is to freely paint with emotion and hopefully get reaction to my work whether good or bad. A bad reaction is better than no reaction at all.
