Steven Schroeder

Chicago, IL, United States

About Steven Schroeder

I think of my work as an intersection of chance with design — a collaboration with the media, painting with light while celebrating the way(s) pigment takes to surface, not showing or telling so much as opening a space for a play of possibility. I grew up on the High Plains in the Texas Panhandle, and that is where I first learned to take nothing seriously. Emptiness plays an important role in both my poetry and my painting: I often find myself spending as much time on what is not there as on what is. This usually means focusing on a single image and letting the whole composition spring up around it — not a narrative but an all at once that evokes a here and now that is, here, now, neither. A likely story is likely to grow out of this when readers and viewers encounter it, but I hope my art always invites more than it contains. Chicago has been my home base for over forty years, but I have always kept one foot in the Texas Panhandle. Between 2002 and 2010, I taught at Shenzhen University in China and spent part of each year there. Each of these three places — the Texas Panhandle, Chicago, and Shenzhen — have shaped my vision and continue to shape my work.

Education:

Ph.D. University of Chicago, 1982
M.A. University of Chicago, 1976
B.A. Valparaiso University, 1974

Exhibitions:

2018: Solo Exhibition. Learning to See Nothing. Eleanor Hays Art Gallery, Northern Oklahoma College, Tonkawa, Oklahoma.
2018: Solo Exhibition. A Gift of Fire. Chalice Abbey, Amarillo, Texas.
2018: Solo Exhibition. In the Path of Totality. The Grandview Gallery, Ada, Oklahoma.
2018: Solo Exhibition. A Cloud of Witnesses. Fremont Public Library, Mundelein, Illinois.
2018: Liturgical and Sacred Art Exhibit, juried art show at Springfeld Art Association, Springfeld, Illinois.
2018: “Resilience: the 4 Seasons,” juried art show at Buttonwood Art Space, Kansas City.
2018: “The Crow Show,” juried art show at Arts Illiana Gallery, Terre Haute, Indiana.
2018: Telling God Stories in the 21st Century. Online exhibit at The Episcopal Church & Visual Arts
(ecva.org).
2017: Solo Exhibition. Circle Dance. Arlington Green Executive Center, Arlington Heights, Illinois.
2017: “To Reform: Artists Respond to the Reformation,” juried art show at Eide/Dalrymple Gallery, Augustana University, Sioux Falls, SD.
2017: “Pure Enjoyment,” juried art show at The Creamery Art Center, Springfield, Missouri.
2017: “Visions of the Flint Hills,” juried art show at Buttonwood Art Space, Kansas City.
2017: “Light and Shadow,” juried art show at Mildred M. Cox Gallery, William Woods University, Fulton, Missouri.
2017: “Music to My Eyes,” The Creamery Art Center, Springfield, Missouri.
2017: Solo Exhibition. In A Landscape. Meet Chicago Northwest, Schaumburg, Illinois.
2017: Ann Metzger Memorial National All Media Exhibition, juried art show at the St. Louis Artists' Guild, St. Louis.
2017: "World Visions,” juried art show at Buttonwood Art Space, Kansas City.
2017: Springfield Regional Arts Council members show The Creamery Art Center, Springfield, Missouri.
2017: Solo Exhibition. Inflections. Rolling Meadows Library, Rolling Meadows, Illinois.
2017: Solo Exhibition. A Mime Face on Memory. Blackstone Library, Chicago.
2017: Solo Exhibition. Epiphany: what light does on edge. Chalice Abbey Center for Spirituality and the Arts, Amarillo, Texas.
2017: “Urban+Abstract,” juried art show at Buttonwood Art Space, Kansas City.
2016: “Pure Enjoyment,” juried art show at The Creamery Art Center, Springfield, Missouri.
2016: “Visions of the Flint Hills,” juried art show at Buttonwood Art Space, Kansas City.
2016: Juried Exhibition at Arts Illiana Gallery, Terre Haute, Indiana
2016: group exhibit at Sulzer Regional Library for the International Day of Peace, Chicago.
2016: Liturgical and Sacred Art Exhibit, juried art show at Springfield Art Association, Springfield, Illinois.
2015: Annual All Media Exhibition, juried art show at Ann Arbor Art Center, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
2015: Horizon: Contemporary Landscape, juried art show at Community Arts Center, Danville, Kentucky.
2015: “Pure Enjoyment,” juried art show at The Creamery Art Center, Springfield, Missouri.
2015: “Visions of the Flint Hills,” juried art show at Buttonwood Art Space, Kansas City.
2015: Solo Exhibition. Classic Cinemas. North Riverside, Illinois.
2015: Solo Exhibition. Dispersed Cities: Recent Work on Paper and Canvas, The Paper Crane Gallery, Canyon, Texas.
2014: Freeport Art Museum 11th Annual Regional Juried Exhibition, Freeport, Illinois.
2014: Artists Association of Northern Colorado Online Juried Show.
2014: Horizon: Contemporary Landscape, juried art show at Community Arts Center, Danville, Kentucky.
2014: 5th Annual “Small Works” Exhibit, juried art show at Riverside Arts Center, Ypsilanti, Michigan.
2014: “Visions of the Flint Hills,” juried art show at Buttonwood Art Space, Kansas City.
2014: Art at the Center-The Abstract Exhibition, juried art show at the Tomahawk Ridge Community Center, Overland Park, Kansas.
2014: Third Coast National, juried art show at K Space Contemporary, Corpus Christi, Texas.
2014: St. Louis Artists’ Guild Regional Summer Exhibition, juried art show at the St. Louis Artists’ Guild, St. Louis, Missouri.