Stephen Linhart - a New Yorker living in Massachusetts - creates digital art, collage, vector and algorithmic art and photography in an eclectic combination of surreal, psychedelic, abstract and expressionist styles. He creates his works with a camera and then processes them in digital post-production. His source materials include his own photographs, but also stock photos and timeless art from the past. Starting with scans, photographs and mathematical abstractions, he fuses, combines and composes to create new, unexplored worlds.


Statement
The mimetic tangle that is 21st century art is full of discoveries waiting to happen. Ever-increasing exposure to the art of many times and cultures leaves us surrounded by so many styles and techniques that it would be hard to accept any one dogma or system, any one answer to “What is Beauty?” or “What is Art?” The construction and manipulation of aesthetic systems is the great plastic medium of our time.

In the digital manipulation of fine art and photography, I’m exploring the relationship between collage, pop art and algorithmic art; a wilderness of possibilities. I process and combine images to create an image-space, which I explore and sample. It’s something like finding pretty shells on a beach, except that first I have to make the beach. I find a glimpse of something—a shell—then I compose and edit the image to capture that glimpse. Sometimes it works and I keep it. Sometimes it doesn’t, and I start again.

Some of my works are inspired by myths and stories. For others, I use a more abstract method of pure exploration. Working by experimentation and serendipity helps me explore aesthetic systems more freely.

I’m currently working on several techniques, each of which is represented in this portfolio. I collage from extreme close-ups of flowers and of the human form. I digitally sketch photographs into pop-oriented vector art. And I also use art that I’ve ‘found’ in the works of great painters. It has been common in recent decades for prominent artists to ‘find’ material in the output of lesser-known artists and designers. I reverse that process.


Awards
The Apple Quicktime Web Challenge (Winner, 1997)
International After Dark Contest (2nd Place and 3rd Place, 1994)

Permanent Collections
Amarillo Museum of Art Amarillo, TX
Artcolle Sergines, France
Centre for Adult Education Melbourne, Australia
Hill Country Arts Foundation Ingram, TX
IMCAC Pagosa Springs, CO
The Learning Connexion Wellington, New Zealand
Tsanko Lavrenov National School of Fine Arts Plovdiv, Bulgaria
Turchin Center Boone, NC
University of Wisconsin Art Department Marshfield, WI

Group shows and Art Fairs
Focus, The Dialogue 2023
Unattainable 2022
· Monat Gallery, Madrid, Spain

BRAINCAKE, Casa Mila (La Pedrera), Barcelona, Spain 2022
PRETTY PERV; ORIZZONTI TRASVERSALI; VISCERAL; LIQUID ARSENAL; NFT New Freedom Think 2022
ALDILA; PARAÍSO; COMING OUT; KROMATIC@RT 2021
· M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, Madsverse, spatial.io Milan, Italy; Fuerteventura, Canary Islands, Spain

ARTfair Innsbruck at Olympiaworld in Innsbruck, Austria Monoco 2022
ART3F International Contemporary Art Fair at Chapiteau de Fontvieille in Monoco 2022
(un)fair International Contemporary Art Fair in Milan, Italy 2022
· Monat Gallery, Madrid, Spain

Culture in Colorful Motion 2020
International Exhibition of Contemporary Art 2020
· Time of Art - Eleni Sakali Art Gallery, Athens, Greece

International Biennale Artists Miami 2014
· Nina Torres Fine Art, Miami, FL

International Collage Exhibition & Exchange 2006-2014 (annual event)
· Real TART, New Plymouth, New Zealand
· The Gallery @ City Library, Melbourne, Australia
· Puke Ariki Museum, New Plymouth, New Zealand
· Percy Thomson Gallery, Stratford, New Zealand
· Aotea Utanganui, the Museum of South Taranaki, Patea, New Zealand

White on White 2007
· IMCAC, Pagosa Springs, CO

Mini Artefakts 2007
· Borrelli Space Gallery, San Diego, CA

Human Artefakts 2006-2007 (traveling exhibit)
· Art Works, Richmond, VA
· Artful Gatherings, Lemont, IL
· Gallery Atelierhof, Bremen, Germany
· The Learning Connexion, Wellington, New Zealand
· The Framing Workshop, Hamilton, New Zealand
· Waikato Museum, Hamilton, New Zealand
· The Framing Workshop, Hamilton, New Zealand
· Expressions, Upper Hutt, New Zealand
· Percy Thomson Gallery, Stratford, New Zealand
· Christchurch Arts Festival, Christchurch, New Zealand

Baker’s Dozen Collage Exchange 1999-2007 (annual event)
· Subtaranian Gallery, New Plymouth, New Zealand
· Open Space Gallery, Allentown, PA
· Durango Art Center, Durango, CO

Florence Biennale 2003
· Florence Biennale, Florence, Italy

Can You Digit 1996
· Postmasters Gallery, Soho, New York

Algorithmic Art 1994
Xerox PARC, Silicon Valley, CA