“My hope for the painting is that it acts as a catalyst to dislodge the viewer’s imagination from its day‑to‑day pattern and that it creates a new place in the world for the viewer’s consciousness to wonder, reflect, or just to be still. That's the regenerative power of painting.” - Steven Alexander
Steven Alexander is an American painter celebrated for his luminous, abstract compositions that explore the language of color and form. For more than fifty years, he has pursued a meditative approach to abstraction, influenced by artists like Rothko, Mondrian, and Morandi.
His paintings are marked by soft, layered surfaces and elemental geometric structures that seem to pulse with rhythmic stillness—evoking both emotional and sensory depth. Born in 1953 in west Texas, Alexander’s early experiences of the vast plains deeply informed his sense of space and atmosphere.
He studied at Austin College under Vernon Fisher, and later earned his MFA from Columbia University, where he worked with Richard Pousette-Dart and Dore Ashton. Based in New York since 1975, Alexander’s work has been exhibited widely in the U.S. and internationally, with major solo shows at Spanierman Modern and David Findlay Jr. Gallery. He is a long-standing member of the American Abstract Artists group and has been awarded grants from the Pollock-Krasner and Belin Foundations, among others.
His paintings are held in numerous public and private collections and have appeared in over 100 exhibitions worldwide. Alexander has also contributed to the art world as a curator, writer, editor, and early program coordinator at PS1, where he helped shape formative projects by artists like Dan Graham and Robert Barry.
A musician as well, he performed in New York’s downtown scene in the late 1970s and early ’80s. Today, he lives and works in eastern Pennsylvania with his wife, the artist Laura Duerwald.