“I find the inspiration for my paintings on road trips through the everyday, American landscape. My idealized portraits of signs and architecture are an ode to the beauty I find in the three-dimensional, human-made world. I see the structures I depict as monuments to a community’s culture and history, the evolution of commerce, design and manufacturing trends, impermanence, and obsolescence." - Stephanie Schechter
sold works & installation shots
ARTIST STATEMENT
"Though my work starts with photography, my paintings are highly edited from their original reference photos. I create compositions that articulate what I find compelling about my subjects. I remove details such as the rust, dents, and peeling paint that occur in real life, and focus my work on color, three dimensional form, and shadows. Elements are shifted in order to direct the eye. My meticulous, smooth, hard-edge painting technique combines bold areas of solid color with delicately blended transitions. The resulting body of work is minimalistic and graphic, yet maintains the perception of hyperrealism. Each painting embodies my love for my subjects and the poignancy I see in these often-overlooked treasures."-Stephanie Schechter
Stephanie Schechter reviewed in the press:
"Every day we go out among the streets, full of people, shops, cars, buildings…an infinity of details to which we don’t pay attention due to habit. But if we could stop and watch around us we could discover a lot of precious meanings in things we don’t even imagine. For example: think to a particular street in your hometown where there’s an historic old shop that has become a landmark of the area, give a look to its shop sign and you’ll immediately realize that that’s a symbol actually. Neon lights, cinema or theatre marquee, colorful writings on shop windows are a freeze frame of the times we’re living and they become a symbolic feature. Stephanie Schechter has a real vocation for those little details of the city. Through all the emblematic signs, we can discover places that belong to our past or some that are still a part of our lives. With a single shop or cinema sign, the painter is able to arouse our memories.
Stephanie Schechter dedicates her art to the everyday man-made world where three dimensional and showy signage captures her attention more than anything else. Her minimal artworks evoke instant emotions and introspecting thoughts; they make you realize that we are surrounded by words, and words are like water, able to change their form and meaning depending on the mind who catches them.
So, you can feel many different feelings by reading, for example, the word “Apex” or coming across a signboard who says “The Best“… Schechter’s art is very aesthetic and enigmatic at once; she is very skillful in reaching this well calibrated blend, giving life to works that remain etched in our mind. Every sign can really open a brand new and personal world in everyone’s thoughts." Hyperrealism Magazine