Atrium Gallery of Art at St. Thomas University, Miami, Florida
April 19 - May 18, 2001

Artist-photographer Stephen Althouse was born in Washington, DC in 1948, raised in rural Pennsylvania, and supplemented his education with foreign study in South America. He resides in Miami, where he holds a faculty position in the Department of Fine Arts at Barry University, and periodically teaches in France, England, Spain, and South America.

Although he uses photography as his primary creative medium, Althouse is also a sculptor and the sculptural tradition of making and manipulating subject matter is carried over into his photography. His images appear to be ritualistic in nature, often cryptically blending mysteries of passage from his youth and adulthood, experiences during his travels, and emotional reactions to people and events which have impacted upon his life.

In covering his subjects in shrouds, Althouse seems to be withholding information, dropping clues and raising questions; thereby pushing the drama and mystery of his works to uncharted levels. Phrases written in Braille, which have been important elements in many of his works since the late 1960’s, add to the indecipherable quality of Althouse’s art. Braille additionally implies blindness, reflecting his view of human existence, “that of groping and stumbling throughout history”. He states that blindness also describes his state of mind whenever he feels the absence of creativity.

Althouse is experimenting with photographic film grain incorporated into his images, exaggerated by large-scale printing, film development, and point source illumination in the darkroom. Two of the pieces in this exhibition, The Five Talents and Dart, are technical departures and representative of a series of his most current work created entirely on the computer. Using neither camera nor film for these two examples, Althouse places his subjects directly upon a scanner to capture his images digitally.

The crossover between his use of photography and digital imaging is consistent and fluid and his pieces continue to be highly creative and personal, with their meanings “shrouded” in mystery.

Jorge Sardiñas, Director
Atrium Gallery of Art at St. Thomas University

Dart, 2001
The Five Talents, 2000
Annette von Droste-Hülshoff and Shroud, 1999
Shrouded Gauntlet, 1999
Shrouded Wrench, 1999
Wrapped Ribs, 1999
Mask VI, 1999
Mask VII, 1999
Shrouded Stealth Bomber, 1999
Crown of Small Flowers, 1999
Shrouded Swords, 1999
Shrouded Helmet, 1999
Hex Nuts and Wrenches, 1999
Gauntlets, 1994

STEPHEN ALTHOUSE
WAR
Gallery of Art, Barry University, Miami, Florida
October 12 - November 25, 2001

It may be said that contemporary Western art is a reflection of our society, sometimes as documentation, sometimes as approval, sometimes as criticism, and sometimes as concern. This retrospective exhibition of photographic images by Stephen Althouse has been curated in response to the terrible tragedy of September 11, 2001. In the selection and narrowing process for this exhibition, images were chosen which illustrate the recurrence of specific elements that permeate much of Althouse’s work. Weapons, both primitive (Amazonian blowgun darts, stone implements) and sophisticated (stealth bomber), have been symbols utilized by the artist since the late 1960s not as advocacy of violence but, after one knows the background of the artist, just the opposite. Raised in rural Pennsylvania, Althouse contemplated Quaker influences in his early twenties and late teenage years during the Vietnam War, which at that time was a vague and misunderstood major military campaign radically affecting his generation, the politics of that era, and the established social order.

Privately expressing his concern for humankind and our historic inability to recognize the early signs which prohibit us from diagnosing societal problems before they reach the extreme and epidemic, Althouse is not without hope. Under a shrouded medieval helmet he inscribes in Braille the Latin words, “occurrent nubes”, translated as, “clouds (heaven) will intervene.” If it may be said that contemporary Western art is a reflection of our society, then it could also be said that the artwork of Stephen Althouse is a metaphoric mirror of prophecy in the context of the recent terrorist attack upon our nation. In his large-scale photograph, Shrouded Swords, dating to 1999, he encrypts a Braille phrase in the center of his piece, “veniente occurrite morbo” meaning, “meet the coming of the disease.”

A characteristic of photography is its ability to communicate precisely detailed information, and Althouse’s earlier works are rich with extremely fine detail. However, in his latest series he chooses to obscure and camouflage that information through the covering of subject matter with cloth. Detail is concealed further by employing exaggerated photographic grain whose texture is reminiscent of his earlier works done in sand. Secrecy is heightened in his imagery by integrating Braille phrases into his compositions, adding a profound and mysterious quality to his work.

Dart, 2001
Mask VI, 1999
Mask VII, 1999
Mask III, 1997
Mask IV, 1997
Mask V, 1997
Berlin, 1997
Swords, 1997
Spears, 1997
Standing Armor, 1995
Darts II, 1994
Ubi Lapsus, 1993
Darts I, 1989
Blades II, 1989
Goodbye II 1988
Blades I, 1985
Papyrus, 1984
Shrouded Stealth Bomber, 1999