Steven Schroeder

Chicago, IL, United States

About Steven Schroeder

I am interested in the way light breaks on edges, the way pigment takes to surface, the way words tumble out onto the page, the way the eye of the ear sees them. I find common ground with John Cage when he says “I have nothing to say and I am saying it and that is poetry” and (in the same piece, his “Lecture on Nothing”) when he says “Kansas is like nothing on earth.” Kansas, southeastern Colorado, the northeastern corner of New Mexico, the panhandle of Oklahoma, and (especially) the panhandle of Texas – that is where I grew up, and it shaped my eyes like nothing on earth. I find common ground with Helen Frankenthaler when she embraces chance and lets paint flow on raw canvas to create forms that surprise and invite us to see worlds we would never have seen alone. This leads me to embrace lyric poetry as a form of abstraction (in the way that computer scientists use the term), a simplification (and an interface) that allows us to manipulate complexities below the surface without getting bogged down in them. And it leads me to agree with Georgia O’Keeffe when she says all painting is abstract. 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.

Education:

I received my Ph.D. (in ethics and society) from the University of Chicago in 1982 and my M.A. (in divinity) in 1976. I received my B.A. (in psychology, with a minor in Greek) from Valparaiso University in 1974.

Exhibitions:

2019: “TA-DA! Inspire. Discover. Transform," juried art show at Buttonwood Art Space, Kansas City.
2019: Ann Metzger Memorial National All Media Exhibition, juried art show at the St. Louis Artists' Guild, St. Louis.
2019: Pentimento, juried art show at the Tall Grass Arts Association Gallery, Park Forest, Illinois.
2018: “Visions of the Flint Hills,” juried art show at Buttonwood Art Space, Kansas City.
2018: “Pure Enjoyment,” juried art show at The Creamery Art Center, Springfield, Missouri.
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.