Stoehr paints both with traditional acrylic on canvas and digitally on his iPad.

 

Every portrait begins with a single face, an ambiguous expression, a direct shared gaze, an uncertain context and a few naturalistic cues. Accidents and experiments are central to his process. 

 

Stoehr’s digital-hybrid paintings blur the boundaries between traditional painting, drawing, photography and digital media. Each begins with a high-resolution image repurposed from one of his own unfinished acrylic-on-canvas paintings. Working on an iPad and in Photoshop, he draws, layers, masks, erases and manipulates the image, transforming the original painting into an entirely new work created by his hand.

 

The finished works move freely between media - displayed as illuminated images, projected at architectural scale, or printed on aluminum and other surfaces - challenging distinctions between painting, photography, digital image and installation.

 

The work connects the basic theory behind Cubism with the science of visual perception. Stoehr begins with the idea that seeing is an act of construction: the brain interprets what we see through memory, expectation, emotion and experience. By leaving the human face fragmented and unresolved, he asks viewers to complete it themselves.

 

What emerges belongs partly to the painting itself and partly to you - the beholder. This ambiguity raises a larger question at the center of his work - when we look at another person or portrait, how much are we seeing them and how much are we seeing ourselves?

 

 

The viewer becomes part of the medium.

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The following is a selection of 28 × 28 inch portraits for the side walls and a selection of 80 x 60 inch portraits for the entrance area. The final selection and number of portraits will be determined by the size and configuration of the space.

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