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.