CV

education


1998 MFA, Museum of the School of Fine Arts, Tufts University, Boston MA

1993 Graduate Certificate in Fine Art, University of California, Santa Cruz

1992 BA, Fine Art, University of California, Santa Cruz


SOLO EXHIBITIONS


2022 "The Reckoning," Holy Family University Art Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

2021 "The Reckoning," Grubbs Gallery, Easthampton, MA

2019 “The Pilgrim Series,” One Financial Plaza, Springfield, MA

2013 “Jeff Stauder,” One Financial Plaza, Springfield, MA 

2013 “I, Pilgrim,” Hampden Gallery, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA

2007 “American Pictures,” E.A. Seton Memorial Gallery, New Brunswick NJ

1997 “M.F.A. Thesis Exhibition,” Tufts University Gallery, Medford MA 


​SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS


2023 "In Tandem,” Cape Cod Museum of Art, Dennis, MA

2021 Western Massachusetts Biennial, Hosmer Gallery, Northampton, MA

2018 "Caught in a Fantasy," Local Gallery, Easthampton, MA

2018 "Those Who Can," Nave Gallery, Somerville, MA

2018 "5th Annual Juried Show," A3 Gallery, Amherst, MA

2017 "Up/Rooted," Brookline Art Center, Brookline, MA

2016 "Breaking the Mold,” Cape Cod Museum of Art, Dennis, MA

2016 "Juror's Choice," Uforge Gallery, Boston, MA
2016 “Nowhere Everywhere Now Here,” Thompson Gallery, Weston, MA

2015 “Northampton Biennial: Motion-Emotion,” Hosmer Gallery, Northampton, MA

2015 "Open Call N-NE," Brattleboro Museum & Art Center, Brattleboro,VT

2014 "Painting Intricacies," The Nave Gallery Annex, Somerville, MA

2013 “Light,” Golden Thread Gallery, West Hartford, CT

2013 "12th National Prize Show," University Place Gallery, Cambridge, MA

2012 “Amherst Biennial,” Boltwood Gallery, Robert Frost Library Gallery, and Freedom Trails Gallery, Amherst, MA

2012 “Taking it to the Streets,” Worcester Windows, Worcester MA

2006 “Art Station Group Exhibition,” Art Station, Hightstown NJ

2005 “Art Station Group Exhibition,” Art Station, Hightstown NJ

2004 “Art Station Group Exhibition,” Art Station, Hightstown NJ

2000 “Happy Days,” Hall Street Space, Brooklyn NY

1999 “(Im)Perfect,” Hall Street Space, Brooklyn NY

1997 “Student Annual,” Grossman Gallery, Boston MA 

1996 “Boit Exhibition,” Grossman Gallery, Boston MA 

1996 “Student Annual,” Grossman Gallery, Boston MA 

1994 “Open Juried Show,” Artworks Gallery, Hartford CT

1993 “Competitive Art Show Exhibition,” Charter Oak Cultural Center, Hartford CT

1993 “Eighteen,” Sesnon Gallery, University of California, Santa Cruz CA


AWARDS


2022 Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Fellowship Grant in Painting

1997 Dana Pond Painting Award Finalist, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

1996 Dana Pond Painting Award Winner, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston



"Protestantism fitted in very well with the New Science. By stripping away the wealth of symbols and imagery from medieval Christianity, Protestantism unveiled nature as a realm of objects hostile to the spirit and to be conquered by puritan zeal and industry. Thus Protestantism, like science, helped carry forward that immense project of modern man: the despiritualization of nature, the emptying of it of all the symbolic images projected upon it by the human psyche. With Protestantism begins that long modern struggle, which reaches its culmination in the twentieth century, to strip man naked."


 - William Barrett, from Irrational Man

​​The Pilgrim Series functions as an allegorical cosmology using disjointed and iconic American imagery. An otherworldly place with recurring characters inhabit an indeterminate landscape; they include bison, crows, squirrels, foxes, corn, forms of wood, and a lone male pilgrim, expressionless and wearing only a hat. Although I began with the idea of an anonymous pilgrim as protagonist, this is also a group of evolving self-portraits. The central theme of The Pilgrim Series is the severed relationship between nature and Western man. The loss of an animistic connection with nature, and in the impossibility of an authentic reconnection, is played out in various ways. This fissure is represented in the interplay between pilgrim and bison as well as symbolic representations of other characters. Climate change, signified by rising waters that confront the protagonists, is a looming emphasis. Despite confronting serious issues, the absurdity inherent in the cosmology creates a conflicted reading of them. At its core the work is playful, and a sense of humor, confusion, and loss are equally communicated.

​​​The Reckoning is a continuation of my preceding Pilgrim series, with an allegorical cosmology of my own design. Recurrent characters from that series appear again here, with the rising waters now an urgent threat. There is a sensation that time is nearing an end. The owl, a central new presence flanked by subservient beings, now presides over this world. The usher of the reckoning, the owl represents a purposeful dark omen.The Reckoning is inspired by my love of both Late Gothic Sienese and Early Netherlandish painting. The peculiar amalgam of detailed realism and contrived artificial space feels simultaneously old and new. My representations live freely in a place where odd symmetries, sacred symbols, and rhythmic stylizations are forced to co-exist. Allusions to climate change are a persistent theme. A disjointed mix of imagery explores mankind's loss of an animistic connection with nature, and in the impossibility of an authentic reconnection. An absurdist allegory, the Reckoning does not function as a narrative, nor does it promise to provide answers.

mythic west (current from 2020) STATEMENT


"Breaking the Mold" at the Cape Cod Museum of Art, 2016

THE RECKONING (2018 - 2021) STATEMENT


"I, Pilgrim" at the Hampden Gallery, 2013

I still like that now old American idea that the canvas is an arena in which to act. I love this act, playing with color, value, line, shape, form, gesture, and especially space. The history of painting is a story about space. It is a simple story: flatness then illusion before flattening again. What is more real, the image or the picture plane? I am playing somewhere between these two notions, enacting a battle in which I repeatedly render and flatten forms until I am satisfied that I have done both, and neither. I am inspired and humbled by the greats, they are my teachers.
In my ongoing exploration of mythic American iconography my current series focuses on select cowboys from the Old (mythic) West. These myths are often muddled with Classical and Christian ones, suggesting a crumbling tradition of Western representation and belief. I am interested in these figures as myths and as people: they are heroes, villains, killers, gods, monsters, sinners, and saints. I like to play in this indeterminate space, this metaxy: are historical figures real, or are they illusions? Have these subjects been rendered, or have they been flattened?

THE pilgrim series (2009 - 2017) STATEMENT

​​Jeff Stauder

Jeff Stauder was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts and raised in eastern Connecticut. He received a BA in Art from the University of California at Santa Cruz and an MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where he won the 1996 Dana Pond Painting Award. Following graduate school Stauder moved to New York City where among other things, he created the Artists Theoretical Racing Circuit, a collaborative conceptual art project. He moved to western Massachusetts in 2008, where he finally indulged his true nature by reveling in imagistic historicism. That work has been exhibited widely in New England, including a solo exhibition at the University of Massachusetts. In 2022 he was awarded a Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Fellowship Grant in Painting. More or less a joyful misanthrope, he loves Rock & Roll, Art History, and cats. He is trying to create one truly great picture before he dies.

Buy Essay on Utopia by Jeff Stauder (Signed - Edition of 50)

BIO