Steve Turner
After dealing in American art from the 1930s and 1940s for twenty years, Steve Turner opened Steve Turner Contemporary in 2007. Since then he has done thousands of studio visits, mounted hundreds of exhibitions and participated in scores of art fairs in the United States, Europe and Latin America. Among the artists he has worked with are Petra Cortright, Parker Ito, Jonas Lund, Pablo Rasgado, Camilo Restrepo, Rafaël Rozendaal and Michael Staniak.
Appraisals (77)
See Through (fractal)
Wave (fractal)
Formalist Zombies
Would be a great thrift store painting.
Brutalist Posters (fractal)
New Atlas
Bad marriage of Sergej Jensen & Ethan Cook.
Blossom-Lullabies (Fotogram)
Extra Terrestrial (fractal)
Nude Topless Woman
The Unwilling Successor #2
Reverse Mock-up (Fractal)
The Patron Saint of Process Based Abstract Painting
Dana Schutz rip-off.
Meta (fractal)
M.R. Ducks (Day Job)
No Algorythm (Genesis) Fractal
Offset Matterhorn #3
Offset Matterhorn #2
Offset Matterhorn #1
Huevo Eclectico (Fractal)
Untitled
The Unwilling Successor
There's only one Tauba.
Curtain (fractal series)
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Princess Gifts Inc. (dayjob)
One man's daydream is everyone else's nightmare. Wrong colors; wrong opacity; clumsy gestures. Bad result. If signed, should be Franz Klunk.
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A mess.
Laura Palmer's Curtain 2
Untitled (floor)
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The Amsterdam color field school is alive and well. One of the better works.
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Nothing but a gussied up drop cloth.
Laura Palmer's Curtain
A shallow result. Trying too hard to be Zen.
Double double spinach trouble
Even Popeye would not eat this spinach.
Double
I'll take my ice cream from Wayne Thiebaud.
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Double double
Tits
Lazy Eye (prism exercise) No. 1
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Imitation of imitation art.
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Imitation art.
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Study for Fauntleroy No.2
Study for Fauntleroy No.1
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Micro Macro Situation
Flip city lite.
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No.4 (Ordinal Series)
No.3 (Ordinal Series)
No.2 (Ordinal Series)
No.1 (Ordinal Series)
A descriptive text by an artist can do more harm than good; that is the case here. “Material derivation” is a clumsy, peculiar way to say “object,” and what is a "communicative web"? Typical of a lot of contemporary abstract painting, this work incorporates elements from AbEx paintings (Motherwell, Pollock) as well as Richter, but like many contemporary works, it does not measure up, it has no weight, no essence. It is merely a glib imitation.
Process this 2
Process this 1
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Not bad. I don't hate it, yet I don't love it. It could stick around for a while. I like the lines. I like the drips. I like the subtle fade from white to blue. I would be curious to see what the canvas looks like at top right. What is the texture? What is the surface of the white area like?
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This work is clumsy, awkward and unrefined. It lacks any redeeming quality. It reminds me of some of the worst painters of today, some of whom, amazingly, have collectors buying their work. Destroy immediately and let the bubble burst.
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I dislike this work intensely for its lack of subtlety, meaning, inspiration or technique. Destroy immediately.
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Need I say more? Destroy immediately.
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This has some potential; I like the green edge, possible evidence of some prior life, but the cracking is too exaggerated. It needs more subtlety.
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An unsuccessful, deritive series. Possibly based on another “semi-successful” artist who scrapes the canvas in a similar manner, but both his work and Assistant 4’s riff on it lack subtlety and refinement. Destroy.
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A clumsy work, unrefined.
Butterflies (all over)
While the series has promise, this work is flat and directionless.
Density (too definite)
Assistant 2 is getting somewhere. He/she is advancing something. It is purposeful, yielding a dynamic read. The stark white background of a store-bought canvas might be a problem, but I am encouraged.
Composition (upwards)
Another flat work from a series that has potential.
Untitled
Same series. Same results. Painful to view.
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Empty, alienating, soul-less, superficial, formulaic, repetitive, awkward, thick, one-dimensional. To the extent that it resembles work by a semi-successful artist on a website that purports to algorithmically rank artists, it condemns that artist's works more persuasively than any critic could. Imitation of bad work does not flatter.
Untitled
This work also bears a closer look. Do not destroy just yet, but be prepared to in the end.
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Not as good as the blue version. Not as bad as the red, but still not successful. Lacks sensitivity. I do like the splatter, but the lines are distracting and unrefined. Destroy.
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This is not as good as the previous work in blue. The black lines here are too heavy and there are too many of them. The red drips look contrived. This painting does not work. Destroy.
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This is the best of the worst. It should still be destroyed, but something interesting is starting to appear.
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Ditto two previous works. I like looking at concrete sidewalks with abstract chewing gum patterns more than I do this. Reminds me of the works of a semi-successful young painter--a bad sign for both.
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This work is slightly better than the previous one, but it too lacks any redeeming quality. Destroy.
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Not bad. First thought is that it looks a bit too much like the paintings from Flip City, but that need not be a fatal criticism. It has a nice wispy and ephemeral feel to it with subtle marks, gestures and color composition which I like. I am not sure that this ultimately deserves to get signed but I would not destroy it just yet.
