About
Stephen Estrada’s paintings reflect an intimate, human connection with the natural world. His work traces his personal journey from the Pacific to the Atlantic coast, as well as travels in the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico where he has worked to rebuild homes after hurricanes Katrina and Michael. Stephen continued his studio practice while working as design chief at the Smithsonian and director at US Department of State's Museum of Diplomacy. He now makes art full time at his Bethesda, MD studio. He has shown nationally and his work is in collections throughout the United States. He has two daughters and lives in Silver Spring, MD with his wife Leslie and their bullmastiff, Ruby.
Artist’s Statement
I am drawn to the landscape at the intersections where water meets land and sky. In my paintings, I explore the ever-changing forces of nature, the bending of terrain and shifting of light on the moving ocean.
My canvases are often large, especially when painting the sea, allowing for broad gestural strokes that reflect the physicality of nature. When working on large canvases I am drawn back to an experience of stepping into a powerful line of surf, with a sense of aliveness and focus that is hard to replicate anywhere else. My work approaches the subject head on, eschewing linear perspective, as if stepping into the moving ocean from solid land.
Working from photographs extensively culled from journeys across country and to the coast I seek to connect my personal experiences in nature to a deeper sense of time and space. My paintings are not meant as idyllic postcard memories of places travelled but rather as tangible reminders of the slender place we occupy at the edge of the elements.
Resume
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2022 Gallery Neptune & Brown, Endless Horizon, Washington DC
Chicago Academy of Sciences/ Peggy Notebeart Nature Center, Sea State, Chicago, IL
2020 Gadsen Museum of Art, The Paintings of Stephen Estrada: Mapping Memory, Nature and Spirit,
Gadsen AL.
2018 Museum of Art and Science. Macon GA.
Morris Museum of Art, Augusta GA,
Anna Lamar Switzer Center for Visual Arts, Pensacola State College, Pensacola FL.
2017 Ormond Art Museum, Ormond Beach, FL
2016 Durham Art Guild, Durham, NC. Longitude and Latitude: Explorations of Land and Sea.
Two-person show
2015 Arts in Embassies Program, US Department of State. US Ambassadors residence. New York, NY
Arts Club of Washington, Washington, DC. Recent Paintings.
BlackRock Arts Center, Germantown, MD. Sea Paintings.
2014 Cafritz Art Center, Montgomery College . Takoma Park, MD.
ArtSpace Gallery, Maynard, MA
2013 Alexandria City Council Gallery, Alexandria, VA .
Delaplaine Art Center, Frederick MD. At Land’s End. Solo exhibition
2012 Gallery 555dc, Washington. By the Sea.
2002 901 E Street Gallery, Washington, DC.
1989 D.C. Arts and Humanities Grant.
Washington Project for the Arts, D.C. Distant Landscapes. Solo exhibition
Selected Group Exhibitions
2021 Homme Gallery, Epiphanies, Washington, DC
2019 Annmarie Sculpture Gardens and Art Center, Ebb and Flow, Solomon's Island, MD.
3 Square Art Gallery, New Horizons, Fort Collins, CO
2017 Riviera Invitational, Coconut Grove, FL
2015 Alexandria Athenaeum, Alexandria, VA. Saturate. Group exhibition
Cornell Museum of Art, Delray Beach, FL. Group exhibition
2014 Dadian Gallery, Wesley Theological Seminary. Washington, DC. 20th Anniversary. Group exhibition.
2013 Alexandria City Council Gallery, Alexandria, VA . Solo exhibition
2010 Art Spring, Silver Spring, MD, Group exhibition
2009 Dadian Gallery, Out of the Land, Wesley Theological Seminary. Washington, DC.
2003 Wohlfarth Gallery, Washington, DC. Group exhibition
Grants and Residencies
2018 Wesley Seminary Artist's Residency
2014 DC Arts and Humanities Purchase Award
2013 DC Arts and Humanities Purchase Award
1989 D.C. Arts and Humanities Grant.
1985 D.C. Arts and Humanities Grant.
Education
1979-81 Corcoran School of Art and Design
1999 The American University. MA
Teaching and museum experience
2018 Wesley Seminary
2002-2006 George Washington University
2003-2013 Director, U.S. Diplomacy Museum, U.S. Department of State
1997-2003 Chief of Design, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum