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Opening the Window - A Look Into The Creative Mind of

World-Renowned Artist William Stoehr

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By Kaylyn Aznavorian - Reality Serum Magazine 

To be blunt, William Stoehr is a creative genius, and the world appears to agree. His inspiration stems from great artists such as Picasso, Willem de Kooning, Marlene Dumas, Rembrandt, and Leonardo to name a few, and it certainly shows. We asked which of his influences he'd love to meet if it were possible, and to no surprise, it was Picasso. "I would go back a hundred years and meet Picasso. I would like to paint alongside him. I am more interested in how he thought rather than how he painted. I am especially interested in how he perceived reality and how he thought we create visual images in our brain. I think he might have thought about such things."

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William Stoehr's Stigma and Survival

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By Simon Zalkind - Curator

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I wasn’t prepared to be gut-punched by every painting that William showed me – simultaneously riveted and relieved to turn away. The oversized portraits – most of them 7’ x 5’ – are painfully intimate, simultaneously seductive and confrontational. They are difficult to look at and difficult to turn away from. As Susan Sontag remarked in “Regarding the Pain of Others”: “…The iconography of suffering has a long pedigree…Can you look at this? There is the satisfaction of being able to look at the image without flinching. There is the pleasure of flinching.”

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National Public Radio - Morning Edition

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April 28, 20215:09 AM ET

Heard on  Morning Edition

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By Jon Hamilton

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2023

Living Undeterred Podcast - feature interview

Avoiding the Addiction Affliction Podcast - feature

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2022

ArtistCloseup Magazine - feature interview

MONOLITH Contemporary Art Magazine - interview

356 ART+ Magazine - feature article

The Visionary Projects - Artist Spotlight

Tenet Podcast - feature interview

Wie tickt die Kunstszene? Der Kunst - interview

Artful Brain Health article

 

2021

Denver 7 abc and Scripps outlets - interview

National Inst on Drug Abuse - public serv video

National Public Radio - Morning Edition - interview

BBC - World News - article

Artful Brain Health - article

Arte Realizatta - feature interview

Mental Health News Network - article

Spreaker - you turn podcast - interview

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2020

AR [T] MOIRE - feature interview 

Ello – The Creators Network – featured

 

2019      

NPR - City Lights WABE - interview

ARTS ATL - feature article

Westword - review

 

2018        

Ello – The Creators Network – featured

Artospective – feature interview

Khaleejesque Magazine Kuwait - featured

1 HD Kuwait TV - featured

 

2017        

Boulder Weekly – feature article

Boulder Daily Camera – feature article

Boulder Daily Camera – feature article

 

2016        

Westword - review

 

2015        

NPR Science Friday – interview

Reality Serum Magazine – feature article

Vision and Art - The Biology of Seeing - article

 

2014        

Milano Art Expo – feature article

Saatchi Art - featured

SciArt in America - review

Denver ArtScape Gallery Directory – cover

Voice of R – International Youth Magazine – article

 

 2013        

Boulder Daily Camera/Times-Call, CO Daily – article

ColectiveArtsInk – podcast -interview

Westword – review

 

2012       

Invisible Museum – feature article

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2011        

Westword – review 

 

2010        

Caribbean Art World Magazine – feature article

Boulder Daily Camera – feature article

 

2009        

American Contemporary Art Magazine – article

 

2008        

Destination US Virgin Islands Magazine – article                     

 

2007        

Art Fusion Magazine – feature article

St John Tradewinds – feature article

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An artist and a brain scientist are working together to reduce the stigma surrounding addiction. Both are determined to change society's view of addiction.

20210428_me_addiction_is_a_disease_not_aWilliam Stoehr
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and other national news outlets

Artist uses his works to end addiction stigmas

By Elizabeth Ruiz - National Corespondent - Scripps - May 11, 2021

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Efrat Cybulkiewicz - July 1, 2020

William Stoehr’s paintings are beautifully disturbing. He takes our natural and predisposed attraction to faces and uses this to arouse profound and penetrating emotions within us. Emotions that at times are difficult to engage with but are incredibly important to ourselves as well as the world around us. Stoehr aims to lure far-reaching and always relevant questions and subjects to our surfaces, in order for us as a collective to face them head on and in this turmoil possibly find solutions. His art is astonishing and mesmerizing and remarkably essential. 

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         National Public Radio WABE Atlanta

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City Lights with Lois Reitzes 

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William Stoehr is an artist whose work focuses on telling the stories of those who have suffered the most.

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His exhibition at the Bill Lowe Gallery explores intolerance, discrimination, addiction and violence. The haunting portraits often span entire walls of galleries. His work usually consists of portraits with particular attention and detail paid toward the eyes of the subject.

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“I paint to make a difference – to be part of a larger conversation – to engage, motivate and heal – to be part of the solution. It’s just who I want to be,” Stoehr said.

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His exhibition runs through Oct. 18. Recently, Stoehr joined “City Lights” in-studio and talked about his path to becoming an artist.

 

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william_web_mp3_70k53r3gWilliam Stoehr
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Arte Realizzata

A Gleeming Conversation with William Stoehr

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Written by uzomah ugwu

 

William Stoehr is an American artist based in Boulder, Colorado. His work has been exhibited internationally at universities, art centers, museums, and galleries. I had the pleasure of asking William about his favorite moments from working with kids, what makes art important to society, exploring the connection between neuroscience and art and so much more.

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Kelly Stone

Speaking with him from his Boulder, Colorado studio, one gets the feeling Stoehr is in his element judging from the excitement with which he speaks about his recent works. This interview finds him midway through his newest series. For many modern artists and explorers alike, this is the dreaded moment of “what do I do next?”, a critical junction between a momentous start full of ideas and fervent work and the gradual waning of drive and longing for the next frontier. Surrounded by canvases many of which are on the verge of the final brush-stroke, Stoehr finds opportunity for new discoveries in the paint already applied and inspiration for the forms not yet realized. Stoehr’s aptitude in rendering the human figure is astounding. 

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William Stoehr, at Bill Lowe Gallery, says he paints

“to be part of a larger conversation”

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GAIL O'NEILL   ARTS ATLANTA  SEPTEMBER 24, 2019

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A pair of obsidian eyes stare out from a series of gigantic black strokes that suggest a face against a stark, white backdrop in William Stoehr’s Emma 2. A childlike graphic scrawled on the lower right corner of the 80-inch x 60-inch canvas reads, “Emma I promise to paint your portrait if you promise to go to rehab.”

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Emma’s eyes shine, but it’s hard to tell if they’re brimming with tears or are radiant for reasons unknown. Her expression is ephemeral, and you fear that averting your gaze might cut off what little connection you have. But the temptation to look away is equally compelling — because bearing witness to what Stoehr calls “the purity of pain” is never easy.

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Who is Emma? Is she in pain, or has she found relief? Is she asking a question or trying to convey an answer? Is the abstract rendering supposed to represent Emma? Or is it a depiction of the viewer?

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Beauty and the Brain: Understanding Our Responses to Art

The field of neuroaesthetics uses techniques of neurology to understand our response to art.

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by Stephanie Hughes, on March 6, 2015

Neuroaesthetic research can inspire artists, too. For instance, William Stoehr paints large-scale compositions of women’s faces and has been working on a project related to war and violence. Knowing from Connor’s research that rounded shapes seem to be more pleasing to viewers, Stoehr decided to use hard-edged lines to evoke faces that have witnessed or experienced violence. The visages that appear in paintings such as “No More Words #1” and “No More Words #2” appear starved and horrified.

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Breaking Down the Stigma of Addiction

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Addiction AfflictionWilliam Stoehr
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