Alan Steele American

Biography
An artist wears a respirator and uses a power tool to carve a flat wooden artwork
Alan Steele working in his Bowery studio, c. 1970s.

Alan Steele is a conceptual painter who established himself during the early 1970s as a minimalist painter working with mathematical formulae integrated within a grid. This precise process developed into a fragmentary visual language which became the basis for his artwork.

 

Steele was born in Caracas, Venezuela, grew up in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and received his BFA from the School of Visual Arts and MFA from Rhode Island School of Design. He studied with Jo Baer, Robert Mangold and Castro Cid, finding affinity with some of early minimal and conceptual artists, such as Ad Reinhardt, John McLaughlin, Robert Irwin, Robert Barry, Will Insley, Walter De Maria, Michael Heizer and Richard Artschwager. Later, he moved to the Bowery and helped in fabrication of his contemporaries working with Tom Wesselmann, Will Insley, and on a large scale commission project for Charles Hinman, as well as working as part of installation crew for Leo Castelli Gallery and Ileana Sonnabend Gallery. He has lived and worked on the Bowery for over four decades.

 

Steele’s work has been exhibited internationally and is part of numerous public, corporate, and private collections. He is also a curator of ethnographic art, from Africa, The Americas, Asia, Indonesia and Oceania.

Alan Steele, CV (PDF, opens in a new tab.)
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  • Alan Steele, Intention Disappears with Use I, 2023
    Intention Disappears with Use I, 2023
  • Alan Steele, Intention Disappears with Use II, 2023
    Intention Disappears with Use II, 2023
  • Alan Steele, Intention Disappears with Use III, 2023
    Intention Disappears with Use III, 2023
  • Work on paper of interlocking square shapes, the top a black web, the center a washed blue, and the bottom a lime green.
    Twenty Three Spokes #1, 2020
  • Mixed media work on paper with backed linen with vertical stripes made up of geometric shapes in various colors.
    Twenty Three Spokes #13, 2020
  • Work on paper and linen of a black horizontal rectangle, to the top left is a yellow vertical rectangle with red, blue, and pink shapes resembling a map, to the right is a white rectangle with black splatters across the shape and underneath resembles a globe map. A small pink square with black lines is within the white rectangle at the bottom
    Twenty Three Spokes #4, 2020
  • Mixed media work on paper with backed linen with interconnected square and rectangular shapes. The top left corner is a blue striped panel which is bordering a square with mandarin text, underneath the blue panel is a black and white drawing of interweaving lines. A light green stripe at the right borders all these elements.
    Twenty Three Spokes #8, 2020
  • Mixed media sculpture of a white and red layered enamel squares with a tilted piece of paper underneath a stained plexiglass. A small white and red enamel counter sits underneath with an attached silver bucket.
    After the Fall, 2022
  • Aluminum and wood tridimensional painting painted black. A large flat black rectangle mounted on the wall with a rectangular black prism with a blue stripe on the front face attached.
    ACT, Marityx Mereremex, 2019
  • Wood painting with a yellow stripe on the left and a blue stripe border on the right, at the center is a gray painting protruding out with a pattern of diagonal dark gray lines as the background, various gray bulbous shapes, and a stripe of yellow and gray diagonals on the upper right side.
    Modern Equipment, Blue and Yellow, 2016
  • Four square works on work tilted to create a larger square, all white with light gray labyrinth like lines and a black prism mounting them to the wall, in the center a silver square with geometric patterns.
    Stepwell #7, 1987
  • Work on wood of a blue door against a blue and white striped wall with white prisms and an orange floor border
    Untitled (Blue Portal), 2011
  • Work on wood of a dark black textured square with an blue edged geometric shape with dark gray labyrinth like lines in the center
    Fragment from the Gateless Barrier, 1987
  • Shaped painting of an orange curved square with a center blue square shape with indents at it’ corners.
    Fragment 5016, 2020
  • Shaped painting of a dusty blue square with diagonal edges and a tilted square opening in the center. The opening is compressed by two orange rectangular shapes on its left and right side
    Modern Equipment, Fragment 5013, 2020
  • Work on wood of a dark black textured square with an blue edged geometric shape with dark gray labyrinth like lines in the center
    Fragment from the Gateless Barrier, courted #5, 1989
  • Painting in the shape of a gray square with diagonal edges and blue stripes on the left and right sides, a tilted square shaped opening in the center
    Modern Equipment, Fragment 5022, 2020
  • Octagonal shaped painting with a black border with a light green octagon in the center. Inside of the green octagon in a smaller octagon tilted with pink and gray shapes and a square opening in the center.
    Untitled, 2020
  • Work on handmade paper of a panel of three gray rectangles containing various line drawings and gray blocks. The panels hang from a blackrod attached to wooden prism protruding out towards the front of the picture plane, resembling a curtain
    Modern Equipment, Marityx Mereremex, 2010
  • Work on paper with thin blue and red stripes going at different angles, at the center is a blue and yellow flattened octagon with a tilted square opening
    Radical Interceptor, Fragment 5016, 2020
  • Work on museum board with a grid floor extending the picture plane back to a blue square with various prism shapes made up of black lines. At the center of the square is a white pencil. At the top reads: “Unconditionally Constitutional” in a 3-Dimensional font.
    Unconditionally Constitutional, 1999
  • Work on handmade paper of a door at a diagonal extending back into the picture plane bordered by three squares, the top white with a square design, the center made of black lines, and the bottom of a black swirling x shape. The door sits on a floor of gray lines which extend into the light blue background
    Untitled, 2009
  • Work on paper and linen of three rectangles, the bottom horizontal one is black with faint gray lines. The top left vertical rectangle contains a collection of prisms with various patterns in pin, yellow, blue, black, red, green, and white. The background is white with scattered pink blobs.
    Twenty Three Spokes #2, 2020
  • Work on paper with backed linen of a yellow drawing with orange line shapes and scattered green openings. The center is a gray rectangle with a black curved x shape in the center
    Twenty Three Spokes #5, 2020
  • Mixed media work on paper with backed linen with one black vertical rectangle and one yellow rectangle with a design overlay. At the top of the yellow rectangle is a black and white image with scattered letters and a row of text that reads: “an eye 4or an eye 4or”
    Twenty Three Spokes #6, 2020
  • Mixed media work on paper with backed linen with a dark gray stripe to the left and 3 red and 3 black shorter stripes to the right, underneath is gray square with a black overlay resembling marble.
    Twenty Three Spokes #7, 2020
  • Mixed media work on paper with backed linen of two wood panels encasing a black a light gray splattered rectangle with prisms in brown, gray, blue, black, and white containing interwoven lines.
    Twenty Three Spokes #11, 2020
  • Mixed media work on paper with backed linen with a patterned dark gray rectangle contrasted with a lighter gray and white striped rectangle.
    Twenty Three Spokes #15, 2020
  • Mixed media work on paper with backed linen of a large gray square with a series of white prisms with multicolored lines, two smaller horizontal rectangles at the top one with thin multicolored stripes and the other a dark gray curved x shape.
    Twenty Three Spokes #20, 2020
  • Mixed media work on paper with backed linen of a royal blue rectangle with interweaving lines resembling a labyrinth and a black square above it in the same pattern but overlaid with multi-colored prisms.
    Twenty Three Spokes #19, 2020
  • Mixed media work on paper with backed linen made of four rectangles, 3 white and one blue, all containing line drawings but contrasted by a thick black border giving them different shapes
    Twenty Three Spokes #18, 2020
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