Artist Steven Silverstein has published an abstract photography book, with a forward by art critic Peter Frank. Within its 62 pages are 43 works he created between 2013 and 2016, some of which are in private and public/corporate collections. It also includes an Artist Statement and Chronology spanning his early career as a fashion photographer in Paris, New York and Los Angeles, until his turn toward abstractions in 2013.
In his forward, Frank describes Silverstein's work as "perceptualism" using industrial materials and techniques. This is a label used for light-and-space art, finish art, and other artwork that has been associated with Los Angeles since the 1960s, and which "describes Silverstein's approach as well: working on a scale and with instruments as tuned to the industrial as to the aesthetic."
Frank also writes, "This work would have looked perfect (if technically anachronistic) in the Bauhaus or in Peggy Guggenheim's Art of this Century gallery; its oscillation between sinuous and brittle contour, flat and painterly-seeming color, fluid and static compositions bespeaks the debt Silverstein owes to the overarching project of abstraction, painterly or photographic. But Silverstein's works, by and large, brim as they might with fleeting references, don't look like anyone else's paintings, much less photographs."
In moving away from the commercial world of fashion to an entirely new vision, Silverstein explains how he has used many years behind the camera creating images for top fashion magazines and brands as a foundation for his abstract photography. Drawing upon the "same discipline, hard work and integrity," he now seeks to "explore the unknown, especially using light and color."
This book documents the evolution of these recent works. For more information, please connect. Read an excerpt of the book here.