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Stephen Hansen![]()
Education: Self-Taught Sculpture: Paper mache, resin, hydrocal, bronze Graphics: watercolor, etching, engraving ARTIST STATEMENT As an artist I am not an explorer of the human condition, so much as a hapless torist, making snapshots of whatever strikes my fancy. I work primarily in paper mache, the appeal of which is twofold. First, it is fast enough that I can try out ideas without any sense of commitment. Secondly, it is a material so inherently humble that I can claim to make "cultural icons" or "distilled social observations" without feeling too pretentious. Stylistically, I think of my work as lifelike rather than realistic, a choice made out of a desire to represent ideas rather than individuals. I make sculpture with the idea that it should both attract and communicate. Towards that end, I try to create art that is intellectually accessible and aesthetically seductive. I approach my workday as though I were the director of a small reparatory company, with a group of actors that I costume and coerce into the character in the story I want to tell. They tend toward overacting. ARTIST STATEMENT II You should never trust an artist who makes an artist statement, except under duress. PUBLIC COLLECTIONS Smithsonian, National museum of American History Capitol Arts Foundation, Santa Fe, NM Musee de Civilisation, Quebec Byer Museum of Arts, Evanston, IL Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Fort Wayne, IN Institute of Aesthetic studies, Colombo, Sri Lanka Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, MI National Association of Homebuilders, Washington, DC National Building Museum, Washington, DC Town of Breckenridge, CO United States Information Agency, Washington, DC United States Consular Collection, BiNational Gallery, Naples Italy United States Embassy, Caracas Residence Art Collection, Venezuela United States Embassy, Rome, Italy CORPORATE COLLECTIONS Adams National Bank, Washington, DC AES, Washington, DC Alo Alo, New York, NY Amalgamated Bank, Chicago, IL Bernstein-Rein Advertising Inc., Kansas City, MO Borg-Warner, Chicago, IL Canberra Industries, Inc., Meridian, CT Capitol Center, Landover, MD Capitol Records, Los Angeles, CA Checker Motors, Kalamazoo, MI Continental Air Transport, Chicago, IL First of America Bank, Kalamazoo, MI Flint Auto World, Flint, MI Ford Hospital, Detroit, MI Hechinger Company, Landover, MD Herman Miller, Inc., Zeeland, MI, London, Paris, Toronto Hughes Aircraft, El Segundo, CA Jyukano Research Institute, Tokyo Luss Kaplan, New York, NY Mark Twain Banks, St. Louis, MO McDonald`s Corporation, Oakbrook, IL, Toronto Pennsylvania Power and Light, Allentown, PA Qwest, Englewood, CO SIT Group S.A., Luxembourg Standard Oil of Indiana, Chicago, IL Sterling Petroleum, Detroit, MI Upjohn Pharmaceutical, Kalamazoo MI WDIV, Detroit, MI |