Willie Stewart, True Faith, 2021; Signed and Numbered Limited Edition Print

Willie Stewart’s multimedia works combine painting, drawing, and sculpture to examine and to classify time, memory, absence, and melancholy in relation to American visual culture. In his material-based process, the artist glues together painted and drawn layers—each depicting imagery of both personal and cultural significance—to alter the dimensionality of the picture plane. Rooted in the Symbolist notion of metaphorical and subliminal transcendence, Stewart’s practice embraces nostalgia and sentimentality. Based in New Haven, he has presented one and two-person exhibitions at venues such as Nicelle Beauchene Gallery, Morán Morán, and Pioneer Works.  True Faith takes inspiration from the nested colors in Josef Albers’s Homage to the Square paintings, as well as New Order’s 1987 song of the same name. Stewart’s work sets a collision of imagery, borrowed from New Order as well as Yoko Ono and Patrick Caulfield, atop a geometric configuration of brick or cinder blocks. The resulting image