Geoffrey Stein's Donald Trump Bankruptcy Portrait Makes a Strong Showing at Pound Ridge Art Gallery

Nov. 9, 2015 - PRLog -- Pound Ridge, NY – (October 2015)  Pound Ridge, New York, artist Geoffrey Stein has a way with words.  As an attorney, he mastered the art of painting compelling portraits through verbal images that depicted the essence of the legal cases before the court.  He meticulously researched facts pertinent to the issues and judiciously set them out for the court to weigh the evidence.

After a 14 year legal career, Geoffrey Stein continues to brush up, literally, on the issues and personalities making news today.  What's different this time, however, is the medium in which he works, the way he puts his words together, the jury that assesses his commentary and the gallery where his portraits hang.

Stein describes himself as a figurative painter who paints to find out what he thinks about the world and to discover the things he does not have words for.  His paintings explore the tension between what needs to be shown and what does not,  “the seen and the unseen.”

For his “Irrational Exuberance” portrait series in 2009, painted at a time “when the US economy seemed to be in danger of shutting down and people were being buffeted by forces beyond their control, that they could not understand,” he started creating portraits of the newsmakers involved in the credit crunch “by gathering and collaging material from the subjects' worlds:  for Madoff, the legal complaints against him, and text from the Wall Street Journal for Greenspan, Geithner and Bernanke.  When the Dodd-Frank Act was passed, I returned to the series from a new perspective, using text from the bill to created a collaged portrait of Elizabeth Warren.”

Today he's gone mainstream with his take on controversial presidential candidate, Donald Trump.  He used papers from Trump's third corporate bankruptcy to create a 62” x 72” mixed media likeness of Trump that's distinctive and descriptive, right down to the Donald's trademark hair.

Donald Trump's portrait is a powerful profile image, created with printed material and acrylic paint in golden overtones, it reveals a talent that was long suppressed as Stein worked in the legal field.  “I tried and failed for 10 years to combine art and practicing law."   So with tremendous encouragement, support, and some tough love from his wife, he went back to art school full time in 2000.   Stein painted at the New York Studio School until 2004.  In 2007, he was awarded a MFA in painting from London's Slade School of Fine Art, which is consistently ranked as one of the UK's top art schools.

Since then he has painted his way to the top of the class in New York and London, where he continues to garner accolades for his expressive works.  This past summer he was invited to participate in a month-long residency at the Slade in London with 20 other artists from 13 different countries.  His time there culminated with a Boris Johnson collage that made praiseworthy news with local media.

“'Boris' was done in London while I participated in the first London Intensive put on by the Slade School of Fine Art and the Camden Arts Centre. The London Intensive was a one month residency for 21 artists from 13 countries. During the third day of the residency, a tube strike started in the evening and continued through the next day. More strikes were threatened. It was then I thought of doing a portrait of Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, using tube maps. The drawing for the Mayor's portrait was over five feet square, so it did not seem realistic to use the small tube maps. Instead I used the Metro and Evening Standard papers that are given away at most tube stops, and was able to use tube maps for Mr. Johnson's eyes. 'Boris' was shown at the Camden Arts Centre exhibit concluding the London Intensive.”

Closer to home, his innovative paper-infused portrait of Donald Trump hangs prominently next to a portrait of Jamie Dimon made with collage from the Wall  Street Journal, Barron’s, and The New York Times in the Lionheart Gallery at 27 Westchester Avenue in Pound Ridge, New York, not far from the Manhattan skyscrapers where the real estate magnate lives and works, as part of the gallery's current contemporary Paper Space exhibition.  This group exhibition has been called one of the most important and innovative art exhibitions in the region.

The public is invited to cast their vote for Stein's “Trump” during the exhibition that runs through November 30^th.  Gallery hours are Wednesday through Saturday from 11 am to 5 pm and Sunday from noon to 4pm.  In addition, the gallery is hosting on Artists’ Talk on November 14 from 5 to 7 pm for an opportunity to meet Geoffrey Stein and other exhibiting artists.

For more information and to view the works on line, visit www.thelionheartgallery.com, call 914.764.8689 or stop by the gallery at 27 Westchester Avenue in Pound Ridge, New York during opening hours.