Von Lintel Gallery is pleased to present new drawings by New York artist Joseph Stashkevetch. The exhibition marks the artist’s sixth presentation with the gallery.

Joseph Stashkevetch is known for his velvety and moody hyperrealistic drawings in black conté crayon, executed on heavy rag paper that has been sanded to soften up its surface for the receipt of smoldering and meticulous mark making. His primarily monochromatic drawings range in subject matter, often with references to nature and mortality such as floral still lives nearing the end of their bloom.

The pursuit of beauty and perfection, that art gives life something higher to imitate, has long been a foundational tenet of artistic practice, but interpretation remains a collaboration between maker and receiver. Echewing the layering and fragmentation of Stashkevetch's recent work, these stark, intimate studies of flora are stripped down to the naked essentials - paper, clay and carbon. By lacerating the surface, the interior of the paper is exposed to a subtle form of manipulation as pulp is removed and conte added. The delicate images of flowers, hovering in a timeless void, occasionally scratched, broken and fading, offer a meditation on the fleeting nature of beauty and life itself.

The renderings, in conté crayon on heavy rag paper, are lavish feasts for the eye, all velvety, ashy blacks and foggy, smoky grays, lush sensuality from edge to edge. When Stashkevetch compromises these rapturously embellished surfaces, making them heave with exhaustion, he taps into the universal power of mortality itself.

(Leah Ollman, Los Angeles Times)

Joseph Stashkevetch was born in 1958. Past solo exhibitions include “Epic” at the Denver Art Museum in 2014. His work is included in numerous private and public collections including the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Dallas Museum of Art and the Denver Art Museum. He has been reviewed by Art in America, The New Yorker, The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times Magazine. Additionally, his work has frequently been featured in Architectural Digest and Elle Décor. The artist lives and works in New York City.