William Stoehr
Opening the Window - A Look Into The Creative Mind of
World-Renowned Artist William Stoehr
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."
William Stoehr's Stigma and Survival
By Simon Zalkind - Curator
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.”
National Public Radio - Morning Edition
2025
Johns Hopkins Medicine CLOSLER - feature 2
Johns Hopkins Medicine CLOSLER - feature 1
2024
Boulder Daily Camera - feature article
Associated Press - feature article
2023
Eau Claire Leader-Telegram - article
Living Undeterred Podcast - feature interview
Avoiding the Addiction Affliction Podcast - feature
Addiction2Recovery Podcast - feature
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
Addiction, Stigma and Art - article
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
2020
AR [T] MOIRE - feature interview
Ello – The Creators Network – featured
2019
NPR - City Lights WABE - interview
ARTS ATL - feature article
Westword - review
The Express-Star - article
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
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
William Stoehr is a prominent artist whose sister died of an overdose. Dr. Nora Volkow is the director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health. Together, the artist and the scientist are on a mission to let people know that drug addiction is a disease, not a moral failing.
"Prevention and treatment and recovery can't take place until we get rid of the stigma and people are willing to seek help," Stoehr says.
"If we do not address stigma, we can bring all of the science of the world [and] it will not be utilized," adds Volkow. It's a team effort."
Volkow, a painter herself, has brought Stoehr to speak about his art with scientists at the NIH.
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.
National Public Radio WABE Atlanta
City Lights with Lois Reitzes
William Stoehr is an artist whose work focuses on telling the stories of those who have suffered the most.
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.
“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.
His exhibition runs through Oct. 18. Recently, Stoehr joined “City Lights” in-studio and talked about his path to becoming an artist.
Arte Realizzata
A Gleeming Conversation with William Stoehr
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.
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.
William Stoehr, at Bill Lowe Gallery, says he paints
“to be part of a larger conversation”
GAIL O'NEILL ARTS ATLANTA SEPTEMBER 24, 2019
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.”
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.
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?
Beauty and the Brain: Understanding Our Responses to Art
The field of neuroaesthetics uses techniques of neurology to understand our response to art.
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.
Breaking Down the Stigma of Addiction
There aren’t many (if any) places of worship that would allow an artist to come in with a can of spray paint and write the words “Mea Culpa” in massive black letters — only to be crossed out by a giant red x — directly onto the church’s wall.
But William Stoehr isn’t any old artist. The Boulder-based painter’s career has been featured in over 120 exhibits, including 30 solo shows, and has gained international recognition for addressing critical social issues through his art, showcased in venues from Prague to London and featured in major media outlets like NPR and the BBC, and has amassed a following of over 300,000 people on social media. When Stoehr has something to say, you are compelled to listen.
Mapmaker-turned-artist produces haunting portraits inspired by late sister’s struggle with substance use disorder
By JOHN MEYER | jmeyer@denverpost.com | The Denver PostUPDATED: September 15, 2024 at 6:03 a.m.
