Stephen March: "As I See It: A Retrospective"

November 24, 2023–January 20, 2024
Marketview Arts, Gallery Hall

“As I See It: A Retrospective” opens on November 24—Black Friday—for a reason: the artist’s 80th birthday. The exhibition is curated by Interim Gallery Director, Ivy Rodgers and will be on view through January 20, 2024.

“As I See It” will be Stephen March’s 30th solo exhibition over the course of his career, which 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. In a career spanning more than four decades, 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.

If you have questions about the exhibition, including scheduling guided tours for small groups and students, contact Interim Gallery Director Ivy Rodgers, at irodgers@ycp.edu.

Image Credit: Vietnam Elegy (Going Home), Stephen March, 38×60”, Acrylic on canvas, 2000.