Eickholt Gallery :: Stephan Fowlkes Stephan Fowlkes was born in New York City in 1970. With exposure to the city's museums and after-school art programs, he quickly developed a passion for art and creativity that has only ever grown. While at Simon's Rock College, Stephan's focus turned to performance art and creative literature. This later led to his Bennington College thesis, "Lost Dreams"; a long-poem on the Australian Aboriginals and his experiences therewith which earned him the Academy of American Poets Prize. Fowlkes joint majored in ceramic sculpture and spent a semester at the Lacoste School of the Arts in France learning to carve stone. The resulting peices eventually led to commissions for the Getty Estate in Ramatuelle, France and for the president of the Bank of Ireland. Fowlkes’ studies also included photography and printmaking and became a truly well rounded artist. There was, however, something missing. Durring the five years following graduation, Stephan devoted himself to learning the craft of painting. He committed his time almost entirely to the exploration and understanding of the medium. This led ultimately to his current works on wood which currently fluctuate somewhere between painting and sculpture. Stephan has been exhibiting in New York and around New England since the mid-90s. Since then he has also spent much time teaching art at the elementary level around the U.S., was assistant professor of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture at the Lacoste School of the Arts in France in 1999, and has been a guest artist at Williams College, Union College, and Bennington College. He was additionally a guest speaker at the Robert Hull Fleming Museum in Burlington, VT in 2001. 2001-02 was spent as assistant to French sculptor Bernar Venet. In June, he received the Art-Tech Award at the Westmoreland Nationals Juried Exhibition. This past summer he was curator of the 6th Annual North Bennington Outdoor Sculpture Park. Most recently, Stephan was invited as a representative of the arts to participate in the Young Leaders Forum of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, which took place in Huangshan and Huangzhou, China. How would you describe your style? "Geometric Abstraction." How, if forced, would you define your own work? "My work addresses issues dealing with the self. It explores the self in dialogue with others, with the world, and with itself. It is about perception and experience distilled into a largely geometric formula -- a universal language. It is about communication and the mechanics of inter-personal dynamics, tension and resolution, conflict and harmony, tradition and innovation." Who are your most important artistic influences? "Duchamp and Rauschenberg." back to artist list