Stephen Washington

My work on Saatchi is from my Rust Painting series that began in 2018 but is very similar to the photography I have shown in the UK and the USA and is based upon highly textured surfaces that imply a metamorphosis from one state to another and where the paint surface suggests that it is corroding and rusting. Rust seems to me to be a perfect metaphor for America in the 21st century with many of the bonds that joined our communities together coming under increasing strain and the physical infrastructure of the nation falling apart because of decades of no investment and our political institutions becoming corroded and broken. Rust can also be beautiful as it narrates time passing and the returning of matter to its original state in an organic and fascinating process. I live in the Rust Belt state of Pennsylvania not far from Bethlehem Steel where I have photographed regularly and these paintings also refer to the past glories of Pennsylvania steel towns like Bethlehem and Pittsburg and all the other places that Bethlehem Steel had plants that produced the steel for the Empire State Building, Golden Gate Bridge and railroads and the war effort. Rust never sleeps.

Self taught painter educated at Tate Modern, National Gallery, MOMA, Chelsea, Bushwick and Lower East Side.

Rocket Gallery, London 1995 - Joint Show.
Connoisseur Gallery, London 1998 - Group Show
ArtSpace Gallery, Pennsylvania 2001- Joint Show
Soho In The 'Burg, Pennsylvania 2014 - Group Show
Connextions Gallery, Pennsylvania 2015 - Group Show
Brick & Mortar Gallery, Pennsylvania 2015 - Group Show
East Stroudsburg University - 2017 Joint Show
Connextions Gallery - 2018 Solo Show