About
Stephanie Serpick is a visual artist working primarily as a painter. She received her MFA from the
University of Chicago, and her BFA from Carnegie Mellon University. Her work has been
shown in various exhibitions in the U.S. and internationally. Born in Baltimore, Maryland, she
currently lives and works in the New York area.
My work concerns the themes of isolation and grief. The challenges to our physical and mental health
provides a shared experience from which to consider grief and eventual healing. In the work, feelings
of grief and comfort are represented by unmade beds and tossed sheets on intentionally blank,
somewhat rough backgrounds. In addition, images of windows, including blowing or transparent
curtains, lend a feeling of being cut off from the outside world. These paintings are devoid of a human
presence, and therefore feel lonely and isolating, reflecting what many experience during personal
challenges. Both the empty bed and the windows represent a place for grief, solitude and healing.
Recently, I have been using the imagery in new and different ways, manipulating the images by splicing
and reconfiguring them. These changes provide a fractured view of the grief many experience, as well
as the difficulty in the healing process. Recent work has included split images of flowers. I see these
as companions to the beds and windows, offering a vision of color and beauty to offset the difficult
themes in the other work. As such, the work speaks to our shared feeling of trauma, with the
understanding that while we all suffer in our individual ways, suffering is universal.
Source material for this work are found photographs, and the intimate size of the paintings
references the intimate nature of the subject matter. The backgrounds of the paintings are
repeatedly painted and sanded, to create a frame and backdrop for the imagery that is flat,
yet rough with work and time. The bedding and windows are seen from different perspectives,
but still indicate a scene of desolation and despair.
CV
EDUCATION
MFA, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL
BFA, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
SOLO AND TWO-PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2024 Guilty Pleasures, Jefferson Hayman and Stephanie Serpick, Tambaran 2 Gallery, New York, NY
Stillness in Focus, Jefferson Hayman and Stephanie Serpick, Perry Lawson Fine Art, Nyack, NY
2023 Interior Visions: Domestic Sphere, Buckham Gallery, Flint, MI
2022 Vaulted Gallery, Mary Helen Cochran Library, Sweet Briar College, Sweet Briar, Virginia
2020 Jacintha Clark and Stephanie Serpick (two-person exhibition), The Munson-Williams Proctor Arts Institute, Museum of Art at Pratt, Utica, NY
Stephanie Serpick—Watercolors (online exhibition), Marloe Gallery, Artsy.net
2019 A New Fall by Stephanie Serpick, Windmill Library Art Gallery, Las Vegas, NV
(Traveling to Enterprise Library Art Gallery and Laughlin Library Art Gallery, both Las Vegas, NV)
Stephanie Serpick: It’s Always Darkest Before Dawn, Sweet Lorraine Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Stephanie Serpick and William Ruller (two-person exhibition), Chesapeake Gallery, Hartford Community College, Bel Air, MD
2018 Stephanie Serpick, Fine Arts Gallery, College of Southern Nevada, NV
2015 Stephanie Serpick: New Paintings, Bert Green Fine Art, Chicago, IL
2012 The Mechanics of Nature, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI
2005 Stephanie Serpick: New Work, Country Club, Chicago, IL
2003 New Paintings, Gray Matters Gallery, Dallas TX
2001 Stephanie Serpick: New Paintings, Jan Cicero Gallery, Chicago, IL
2000 Tricks and Gifts, Chicago Illini Union, University of Illinois at Chicago
1993 Recent Work, Winchester Thurston Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024 Trace Extractions (three-person exhibition), Paragon Arts Gallery, Portland Community College, Portland, OR
2022 Leonor R. Fuller Gallery (three-person exhibition), South Puget Sound Community College, Olympia, WA
King Street Gallery (three-person exhibition), Montgomery College, Tacoma Park, MD
2021 Scatter Terrain, Ejecta Projects, Carlisle, PA
Seeing Past the Future (online exhibition), Exhibition of works by 2019–2020 Pollock-Krasner Foundation
grant recipients, pkhouse.org and pkf.org
Page Turner (online exhibition), Odetta Digital | SHIM Art Network
2020 Material World (three-person exhibition), Flinn Gallery, Greenwich, CT
Linework: Online Exclusive, Priscilla Fowler Fine Art, Las Vegas, NV
Stars of the Gallery II, Priscilla Fowler Fine Art, Las Vegas, NV
Intersect Aspen, virtual art fair, Marloe Gallery
2019 Stars of the Gallery: A Group Show, Priscilla Fowler Fine Art, Las Vegas, NV
Hard and Soft (three-person exhibition), University of Cincinnati Blue Ash Gallery, Cincinnati, OH
Pegs Pongs Applesauce, LoBo, New York, NY
Startup Art Fair, Hotel Del Sol, San Francisco, CA
Familiar Unreal, curated by Marc Dennis, ARCIS Art Storage, New York, NY
2018 Après Coup: Transforming Trauma into Art, (an exhibition presented in tandem with the conference,
Translating Trauma into Art and Literature) Hewitt Gallery of Art, New York, NY
15 YRS!, ada Gallery, Richmond, VA
Shelter, Gallery 51, North Adams, MA
Civil Discourse, Kibbee Gallery, Atlanta, GA
2017 Prismatic Explorations, Lower Adirondack Regional Arts Council, Glenns Falls, NY
Five Points Gallery Biennial Exhibition, Five Points Gallery, Torrington, CT
Unreliable Narrator, Art House Productions, Jersey City, NJ
Open (C)all: Truth, BRIC House, Brooklyn, NY
Art of Grief, Duluth Art Institute, Duluth, MN
SHIM Invitational 5, ArtHelix, Brooklyn, NY
2016 Words + Text + Numbers, St. Louis Artists’ Guild, Clayton, MO
Elegant Simplicity, Nightingale Gallery, Eastern Oregon University, La Grande, OR
2014 Painting Now, Florence Quarter Gallery, Southwest University of Visual Arts, Tucson, AZ
2012 Greatest Hits, Tiny Park, Austin, TX
The 2012 Drawing Annual, Tiny Park, Austin, TX
Art: The Icing on the Cake, Kenise Barnes Fine Art, Larchmont, NY
2011 The Collective, David Weinberg Gallery, Chicago, IL
Normalcy Bias, Listros Galerie, Berlin, Germany
2009 Overlap, David Weinberg Gallery, Chicago, IL
What is Beauty — A Desire to Decorate, Joyce Goldstein Gallery, Chatham, NY
2008 Unpainted: New Abstract Painting, Thomas Robertello Gallery, Chicago, IL
New Work, ada Gallery, Richmond, VA
One Moment, School of Fine Arts, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
2007 Plaza Art Exhibition, Beverly Arts Center, Chicago, IL
2006 100% Centennial Exhibition, Regina Gouger Miller Gallery, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
2005 Florence Trust Summer Exhibition, Florence Trust Studios, London, UK
2004 – scope London, featured artist, Paul Kopeikin Gallery, London, UK
AAF Contemporary Art Fair, exhibiting with Paul Kopeikin Gallery, New York, NY
17th Evanston and Vicinity Biennial, Evanston Art Center, Evanston, IL
Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago, IL
2003 Introductory Group Exhibit, Butters Gallery, Portland, OR
2002 Gallery Group Show, Jan Cicero Gallery, Chicago, IL
2001 The Big Show, Dwelling Series, Chicago, IL
Chicago Women Artists, Gallery on Lake Judith Racht, Chicago, IL
Serendipity, Thomas McCormick Gallery, Chicago, IL
Summer Show, Jan Cicero Gallery, Chicago, IL
2000 Pilsen East Artists’ Open House, Chicago, IL
1999 Pilsen East Artists’ Open House, Chicago, IL
Jacqueline Ross Gallery, Chicago, IL
Chicago Artists ‘99, Gallery 312, Chicago, IL
1997 Latent Exposure, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL
The Garden Show, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Portland, OR
1995 Ecstasy, Wood Street Gallery, Chicago, IL
Union League Civic & Arts Foundation, Scholarship Exhibition, Union League Club, Chicago, IL
1994 Midway Graduate Student Exhibition, Midway Studios, University of Chicago
1993 Young and Local Alumni Show, Forbes Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA
1992 First Annual Emerging Artists Exhibition, Skibo Hall, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
Figure to Form to Image, Forbes Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA
1991 Exhibition of Art in Recovery, Salvation Army Harbor Light Center, Pittsburgh, PA
RESIDENCIES/AWARDS
2022 Cuttyhunk Island Artists’ Residency, Cuttyhunk, MA
2021 Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts Residency, Ithaca, NY
2020 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant
2018 Ruth and Harold Chenven Foundation Grant
2017 The Studios at MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA
2015 Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT Awarded partial scholarship for two-week residency
2013 Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Amherst, VA
2012 Hot Picks, Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, NY
2010 Ragdale Foundation, Lake Forest, IL
2009 Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT Awarded partial scholarship for four-week residency
2007 Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT
Awarded full fellowship for four week residency and NEA Fellowship to cover travel and expenses.
Non-Representational Award, Plaza Art Exhibition, Beverly Arts Center, Chicago, IL
2004–5 Florence Trust, London, UK
PUBLICATIONS AND REVIEWS
2021 Tulika Bahadur, “It’s Always Darkest Before the Dawn: Beds by Stephanie Serpick”, On Art and Aesthetics, February 2021.
https://onartandaesthetics.com/2021/02/26/its-always-darkest-before-the-dawn-beds-by-stephanie-serpick/
2020 “Flinn Gallery Exhibit Opens “Material World” Thursday”, Greenwich Free Press, September 9, 2020.
Ken Borsuk, “Greenwich’s Flinn Gallery offers ‘return to normalcy’ with new exhibit”, Greenwich Time, September 9, 2020.
2019 Alissa Guzman, “From Domestic to Introspective, Highlights From Gowanus Open Studios 2019”,
Hyperallergic, October 22, 2019.
Emma Taggart, “Photorealistic Oil Paintings of Empty Beds Capture Feelings of Grief and Isolation”, My Modern Met, November 3, 2019.
2018 Etty Yaniv, “Après Coup: Transforming Trauma into Art”, Art Spiel Blog, April 2018.
Esthetic Lens, “A New Fall, the Paintings of Stephanie Serpick”, estheticlens.com, July 25, 2018
“The Art of Stephanie Serpick”, Ruminate Magazine, Exposure Issue, number 48, Fall 2018
2009 MK Meador. “Recommended,” New City, January 19, 2009.
2005 Josh Tyson. “Stephanie Serpick: New Work,” Time Out Chicago, Issue number 45, January 5-12, 2006, p. 55.
2004 Tracee W. Robertson. “Stephanie Serpick: New Work,” Artl!ies, Number 41, Winter 2003-04, p. 77.
http://www.art-lies.org/article.php?id=161&issue=41&s=1
“This is Chicago,” Big Magazine, Number 49, p. 153-157.
2002 New American Paintings, Number 41. Published by the Open Studios Press, Boston, Massachusetts,
Number 41, 2002.
2000 Polanski, Jurek G. “Review, Stephanie Serpick: Tricks and Gifts” artscope.net.
http://www.artscope.net/VAREVIEWS/Serpick1000.shtml
1999 Hawkins, Margaret. “Comic Reliefs,” Chicago Sun-Times, 2 July, p. 52.
Polanski, Jurek G. “Pilsen East Artists’ Open House,” artscope.net.
Wiens, Ann. “Tip of the Week,” New City, 24 June, p. 47.
1997 Ferrara, Annette. “Gallery Seen,” F Newsmagazine, April, p. 20.
Glatt, Cara. “The Seduction of Logic,” Hyde Park Herald, 19 March, p. 8.
Greenberg, Kevin. “HPAC Explores Latent Psychoses,” The Chicago Maroon, 8 April.