![\"Stephanie](\"http:\/\/greynotgrey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Stephanie-Buer-The-Car-Ramp.jpg\")
<\/a>The Car Ramp (2011)<\/p><\/div>\n
So yeah, timelessness. It’s kind of the same idea as the “pure objects” Yuki Saiga describes when talking about his photos of Gunkanjima<\/a>:<\/p>\n Order and value that only prevailed through human existence had long been disrupted. Items were scattered here and there with no context, no ranking. Everything had equal value. The sight I saw spoke of the relationship of the master and servant that had vanished at the time these items were discarded, which liberated them from human reign. To be abandoned meant freedom from all. The items left behind on the island lost their names, their given tasks, even the meaning of their existence. The laid there as mere \u201cobjects\u201d. Books and clocks and empty bottles were no longer books and clocks and empty bottles. Things that had been domesticated by humans no longer existed on the island. \u00a0Just as the inhabitants started their new lives by leaving the island, these things too, left behind on the island, shed their identity once forced on by humans, to start their lives as \u201cpure objects\u201d.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n All this to say that there is a quiet poetry to be found in abandoned spaces. Enough with backstory, back to Stephanie Buer:<\/p>\n Stephanie Buer\u00a0began pursing a career in art at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan where she fell in love with the city and urban exploration. She spent the next ten years living in Detroit and developing as an artist. Buer’s appreciation for these spaces shines through in her work. Although they are firmly within the traditions of representational realism, her drawings and paintings don’t lack in emotive qualities. The interplay of light and texture in her work lends an almost post- romantic quality in the art history sense<\/a>\u00a0to the rigidity of industrial architecture. As these urban landscapes are quietly disassembled by plant life and exposure to the elements, you could read it as Buer’s postmodern riff on Victorian paintings of overgrown ruins.<\/p>\n Trees on the roof of the Packard Plant (2006)<\/p><\/div>\n Buer recognizes these art historical influences (as a realist painter-in-oils it’s kind of inescapable) but also acknowledges the contemporary aspect of her subject matter and the influences those bring to her.<\/p>\n I love the way that Manet and Sargent use oil paint, every time I see one of their pieces in real life I can\u2019t pull myself away.\u00a0 I also really love the work of Franz Kline, Kevin Cyr, Josh Keyes and any and all street art; Kid Acne is one of my favorites right now. I’ve written about Kevin Cyr<\/a>‘s sculptures and modifed prints of NYC delivery vans\u00a0and I can see the commonality – I’m also reminded of the graffiti-rich urban landscapes of\u00a0Jessica Hess\u00a0or the abandoned industrial building paintings of Morgan Craig<\/a>. I think Buer’s paintings have a unique quality, though, in how she handles paint. When she references Manet<\/a> and Sargent<\/a> it’s easy to see the influence – I was reminded of Waterhouse<\/a>, too, and the skies and light in Turner<\/a>‘s late works.<\/p>\n Sunrise from the Roof of the Packard Pant (2011)<\/p><\/div>\n There’s a meticulousness to realist representationalism that sometimes ends up being too much about the accurate details and carefully rendered surfaces to the detriment of mood. This is where Buer’s nod to art history pays off ; her work evokes mood – in spades.<\/p>\n While Buer’s paintings are breathtaking, her drawings are equally worthy of notice. Despite the stark rigidity of industrial architecture, \u00a0they \u00a0have a lushness to them. \u00a0Her drawings\u00a0are not only an accurate representation of an abandoned space, but of the meditative stillness, and the timelessnes I mentioned earlier. I can almost smell the rotting concrete and hear the water dripping when I look at them.<\/p>\n Savy (2012)<\/p><\/div>\n Her urban landscapes explore the many layers of history found in the marginal areas of cities. From the imprints of industry and production to its eventual decay, each subject has a historical context, an original purpose that is now lost. She is fascinated by how these places change as they succumb to the manipulation of vandals, artists and the resilience of nature ever slowly growing alongside. Through her art Stephanie seeks to find beauty and peace in these forgotten and unloved areas of cities. More of Buer’s work can be seen on her portfolio website<\/a>. She also has a charming Tumblr blog<\/a> where you can see her work in progress, keep up with show dates, and more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Stephanie Buer is an artist living in Portland, Oregon. Her work consists of drawings and paintings of abandoned industrial spaces. Before I go into that more, some backstory: Wandering through the wilds of the internet, I found a grainy black-and-white…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[348,129],"tags":[682,468,128,223,788,127,315,787,509],"class_list":["post-3764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-contemporary-art-2","category-painters","tag-abandoned-buildings","tag-american-painter","tag-contemporary-art","tag-drawing-2","tag-oregon-artist","tag-painting","tag-realist-painting","tag-stephanie-buer","tag-urban-exploration"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2JDlZ-YI","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greynotgrey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greynotgrey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greynotgrey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greynotgrey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greynotgrey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3764"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/greynotgrey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3764\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4626,"href":"https:\/\/greynotgrey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3764\/revisions\/4626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greynotgrey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greynotgrey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greynotgrey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n–\u00a0Juxtapoz Magazine<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Back Talk: A Conversation with Stephanie Buer<\/em>\u00a0April 23, 2012<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/a>
\n–\u00a0Juxtapoz Magazine<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Back Talk: A Conversation with Stephanie Buer<\/em>\u00a0April 23, 2012<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/a><\/a>
\n– stephaniebuer.com<\/p><\/blockquote>\n