Whether working with paint or pencil, Augusto Di Stefano uses stark, deliberate marks to register boundaries that are as psychological as they are physical. In his paintings, thick impasto inches across saturated canvases that have been continually sprayed and sanded. In his drawings, similarly labor-intensive pencil strokes are tirelessly repeated to create structures resembling defensive walls. Di Stefano’s works utilize paint’s sculptural potential and the gravity of singular marks to investigate actual and emotional barriers.
Di Stefano has historically exhibited variously-sized monochromatic paintings. In recent years he has begun presenting drawings simultaneously realized on portfolio paper, which he unstitches from its binding. Rather than drafts for his contemplative abstract paintings, the colder drawings of architectural fragments are works in their own right. Articulated with razor-sharp graphite on white, the detached images are softened by the intimate, book-like nature of still-creased paper.
Born in New York, NY in 1966, Augusto Di Stefano received his MFA from The University of Texas at San Antonio, TX in 1999, and continues to live and work in San Antonio. Solo exhibitions include Patricia Faure Gallery, Santa Monica, CA (2002) and Finesilver Gallery, San Antonio, TX (2002). Group exhibitions include Decelerate, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO (2006); Altoids Curiously Strong Collection, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, NY (2005); Mental Maps, Dorsky Gallery Curatorial Programs, New York, NY (2005); and Come Forward, Dallas Museum of Art, TX (2003).