About Randall Stoltzfus
Randall Stoltzfus is a painter who lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. His 16th solo show, Widening, opened at Blank Space in New York City in the fall of 2019. He was awarded fellowships by the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and the Constance Saltonstall Foundation in 2004, and has been artist in residence at the Ucross Foundation in 2004, the Millay Colony in 2000, and at an active psychiatric hospital in Perugia, Italy in 1997. His work is in public collections including the Centro Pari Opportunitá (Palazzo Penna, Perugia, Italy), Alliance Bernstein (New York, NY), and the DC Council on the Arts and Humanities (Washington, DC), as well as numerous private collections.
In his own words
Each of us — whether we realize it or not — is surrounded by our own light, which, in turn, is contributing to a collective light so vast, it’s easily overlooked.
We’re all a part of something bigger. Each of us — whether we realize it or not — is surrounded by our own light, which, in turn, is contributing to a collective light so vast, it’s easily overlooked.
This phenomenon of light — and this cooperation in creating it — are the subjects of my art. My language is hand-painted circles. Multitudes of circles that slowly build into subtle abstract forms and otherworldly landscapes. No two circles are the same. They differ in color, texture, size, and the idiosyncrasies of rendering. Sometimes, gold-leaf adds yet another dimension of radiance. Layers of circles on circles — visible or hidden — reveal something greater than their sum. They coalesce to make the unseen seen. Even to me.
The intrinsic cooperation of the natural world has always been my inspiration. In these times, when we seem to be losing sight of ourselves as a collective, as something greater, my art is especially motivated by a sense of personal responsibility.
What others are saying
These glimmering works — some actually made with gold and palladium leaf — represent the modernist tradition. Indeed, like Kandinsky and Rothko before him, Stoltzfus seeks to represent, through form and color, the immaterial essence of pure spirit.
Patricia Briggs, The Chautauquan Daily
Randall Stoltzfus is an unlikely man — a pastoralist living in the biggest city in the world, a devotee of nature whose devotion compels him to take nature apart and rebuild it, so that we might see its spirit
A Story about a Painter and a Kitten by Daniel Janoff
Randall Stoltzfus is a young painter who has already accomplished a great deal by learning the lessons of the history of art and bringing them up to date in subtle and luminous paintings of visionary landscapes. He is not afraid of the hard work required to create his sophisticated, painstakingly detailed, labor-intensive paintings. His work recalls the romantic mood of the American masters George Inness and Albert Pinkham Ryder, an artist who also inspired Jackson Pollock’s early works.
Essay by Barbara Rose on solo exhibit at Osuna Gallery
Selected Press
This mini-interview for the September 2023 issue of Seoul Art Guide was conducted by Jinkyoung Choi. The interview coincided with Blank Space Gallery’s 2023 Summer Exhibit in Seoul at Lie Sang Bong’s Cheongdam-dong Headquarters.
Watch the interview on Instagram This interview and virtual studio visit with Kim Depole was recorded on IGTV live on December 4th, 2020. In the video Kim and I take a quick tour of…
I’m honored to be featured on the cover and inside the Summer issue of New Letters, one of the oldest literary magazines in the United States
Art for the Peace & Justice Support Network at MennoCon19
One of my Lost Rainbow prints made the trip to Kansas City this summer to benefit the Peace & Justice Support Network, the peace and justice office of Mennonite Church USA. Lost Rainbow #3…
Five questions for Artslant.com
This week ArtSlant seeks answers from Randall Stoltzfus for five questions
Apartmenttherapy.com visited Soapwalla CEO Rachel Winard for an apartment tour that includes this photo of my Ida Grove Poster at home in their space. Rachel and her partner Stacey are old friends and it…
Sacred and spiritual: a visit with artist Randy Stoltzfus
This account of a visit to the studio written by Linda Clarke appeared in a monthly newsletter published by the Brooklyn Monthly Meeting in October of 2016. Lucy Sikes and I visited the Studio…
The rich blue and gold of Stoltzfus’ large, painted abstractions draw viewers into the gallery. These glimmering works — some actually made with gold and palladium leaf — represent the modernist tradition. Indeed, like…
Each close look at the work of Randall Stoltzfus, who calls himself, “a landscape painter with a little obsession with circles,” seems different than the last, especially when viewed in person. Samuel Harwood, Santa…
His meditative, repetitive circular patterns are hand painted in oils, adding layers of gold leaf and other materials until the surfaces evolve their own unique texture and depth. Stoltzfus was brought up in the…
Artist Randall Stoltzfus brings light and shadow to Bergamot Station
This video interview with WestSideToday.com was recorded on March 19, 2016 at the opening reception for Penumbra at Laura Korman Gallery
Meatpacking-District.com featured my 2015 solo exhibit “Clearing” at Blank Space Gallery. The post included a reproduction of the painting Crown.
Blank Space Gallery featured on CUNY.tv
I participated in a video interview for this story by Mathilde Hamel featuring Nana Lee and Blank Space Gallery that ran on CUNY’s Channel 75 in NYC from December 11-15, 2014
This Korean language book by Katie Bomi-Son includes a chapter on her studio visit with me in September of 2013. It is available through Bandi Books US.
This article about the Mennonite Arts Weekend was published in the Cincinnatti Enquirer on February 7, 2014. You can read the entire article at www.cincinnatti.com he sees that upbringing as a gain, not loss.…
Trattamento pittorico della luce
My exhibit solo exhibit at Blank Space was covered by Luca Labanca for the Italian arts website Artribune in an illustrated roundup titled I Magnifici 9 New York. Questa è struttura. That subtitle translates…
Hyperallergic’s Joann Kim-Nuñez included a preview of my work in their September 2012 article titled This Weekend: Navigating the 2012 Dumbo Arts Festival. Randall Stoltzfus creates paintings with layers upon layers of circles and dots…
Stoltzfus mixes picturesque landscape that he remembers from childhood with the high contrast glare and grit of his current home, Brooklyn. Casey Sullivan, The News and Farmer/The Jefferson Reporter This article about a group…
This video interview with iHeartArtists.com was recorded at the October 7, 2010 opening reception for “Sequence” at Blank Space in Chelsea
My 2009 show at LIMN was included when the Gallery got a special illustrated shout out in the May 10, 2009 edition of the San Francisco Examiner. Rik Ritchey: Drawn Out: paintings; Randall Stoltzfus: Further West:…
A shimmering chimerical reality
Randall Stoltzfus materializes a shimmering chimerical reality, resplendent with radiance, yet teetering on the dreamy brink of darkness.
This June 2, 2008 article in the New York Press titled “The Good, the Bad and the Cheap Art: Tampon Chandeliers and Sequined Dogs at the Affordable Art Fair” by Linnea Covington highlighted my…
This interview with Theodore Bouloukos on Vernissage.tv was filmed at the November 2008-January 2009 exhibit “The Magic Hour” at Paul Rodgers/9W Gallery in New York.
The successive textures produce a shimmering, luminous quality, achieved by mixing powdered glass, iridescent pigment and hints of gold leaf. “The way I paint allows the many layers to show through, like layers of…
Paintings of memory, history, and light
When this sort of painting is successful, viewers usually choose an interpretation and are pretty adamant about it. With Flock there is that black mark in the lower edge of the painting left of center that…
This mention by Maureen Mullarkey in the New York Sun was included in a review of the Group show Après Nous, Le déluge. The show ran from November 10 to December 22, 2006 at Francis M. Naumann Gallery in New York.
Still time to enjoy summer’s views
He is drawn to the spiritual spectacle of star-studded evening skies. …skies of mysterious darkness [which] appear to be penetrated by countless circles of gleaming light. Ruth Latter, The Daily Progress This article about…
Sono paesaggi, che non si rivelano subito, ma si svelano poco a poco. “Il quadro per me è una trasformazione magica, è il percorso tra esperienza visiva e pittura” Fiamma Arditi, Ars This editorial…
