Artist Q&A | Stephen March: "As I See It: A Retrospective"

We invite community members to a Q&A with acclaimed local artist Stephen March, who will discuss his retrospective “As I See It”—the 30th solo exhibition over the course of his career. More broadly, he will speak about his career as an artist, which spans more than four decades.

March’s career as an artist began in 1966, when he graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a B.A. in Fine Art. March went on to receive his M.F.A. from Rhode Island School of Design in 1968. Through his career, he has created an immense body of work that touches on topics ranging from news media and surveillance to the fragility of human existence.

The Elegies series has had the longest lifespan- it is a body of work of mixed media paintings covering conflicts March has witnessed throughout his life: the racial and civil rights upheaval of the 1960’s, the Vietnam War, and most recently, the conflict in Ukraine. In talking about the intent of his work, March states, “I have been, and continue to be, interested in creating visual art that can transcend the physicality of the material surface and be a vehicle for emotional, spiritual, and intellectual contemplation, as well as a metaphor for human existence, especially within my own time.”

Stephen March has worked professionally as an artist, residential designer/carpenter, and teacher; most recently at York Country Day School as a Middle and Upper School Art Instructor until his retirement in 2016. He has also taught at a collegiate level at York College of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania State University York Campus, and Elmira College in Elmira, New York. His art is in the collections of The State Museum of Pennsylvania, Chattahoochee Valley Art Museum, Masur Museum of Art, Elmira College, York Hospital/Apple Hill Center, and numerous private collections in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Texas. March lives and works in Spring Grove.

“As I See It: A Retrospective” will be on view at Marketview Arts in Gallery Hall from November 24, 2023, through January 20, 2024.