I have always worked in a variety of mediums and styles, in acknowledgement of their equal validity, and in appreciation of the multi-dimensionality of art. However ostensibly different, my drawings, paintings, photographs, and sculptures are intricately related, thematically in their engagement with the “all too human”—especially the expressive face—aesthetically in their concern with the expressive power of color and non-color, what Kandinsky calls the “spiritual atmosphere” they create, especially when unbounded, as in my abstractions.
More particularly, my abstractions are attempts to reconcile ostensibly irreconcilable colors without denying their essential difference—particularly red and blue, for Kandinsky the most incommensurate, radically opposed colors, and as such the most difficult to integrate. It is the dialectical tension—the emotional frisson—generated by their paradoxical union that bespeaks inner conflict.
The drawings display my particular concern with the range of human expression. They are in the spirit of Charles Le Brun’s classical study of the physiology of facial expression in “Méthode pour apprendre à dessiner les passions” (1698).
My sculptures have a similar dialectical energy as my abstractions, however more representational. They helped me understanding how three-dimensional objects exist in space, which helped me understand how they can live in two-dimensions—in my drawings and paintings.
In my photographs I am a voyeur of the changing social scene, isolating moments in time and space, conferring immortality upon them by holding them captive in uncanny signifier of memory.
— Sonia Stark
Painting, design and illustration awards:
• Arts Club of Washington
• Art Directors Club of NJ (5)
• Art Center of Northern New Jersey (6 best in show)
• Art Students League
• Association of Graphic Artists (4 best in show)
• Best ‘n the East
• CAPRA
• Mills Pond House Gallery, NY (2 best in show)
• Monmouth Museum, NJ
• National Association of Women Artists, Inc (3)
• Old Cultural Church, NJ (2)
• Potlash
Exhibited at:
• Art Center of Northern NJ
• Arts Club of Washington
• Art Students League
• Belskie Museum, NJ
• Blue Hill, NY
• Delaware Community College, PA
• Fairliegh Dickenson University, NJ
• Fieldstone Fine Art, NJ
• Goggle Factory, PA
• George Berges Gallery, NY
• Hopper Gallery, Nyack, NY
• HUB Gallery, Penn State University, PA
• John Cotton Dana Library, Rutgers University
• Karpeles Library Museum, NY
• Midday Gallery, NJ
• Mills Pond House Gallery, NY
• Maryland Federation of Art, MD
• National Arts Club of New York, NY
• National Association of Women Artists
• Northern NJ Cultural Center, NJ
• Noyes Museum, NJ
• Monroe Center for the Arts, NJ
• Old Cultural Church, NJ
• Opalka Gallery, Sage College, NY
• Outside In Piermont, NY (solo show)
• Pastel Society of America, NY
• Pen and Brush, NY
• Stewart Gallery, Purdue University, NY
• Strathmore Museum, MD
• Studio 4 West, NY
Association:
• Board member and ex president of National Association of Women Artists
Teaching:
• Fashion Institute of Technology
In the collection of:
• Dror Faust and Asher Aladjen, NY,
• Alexandra Hoffman, NY,
• Jon and Norma Parets, Westchester, NY
• Lyn Rales, Potomac, MD
• Juliet Rodman, Cabin John, MD
• Stephanie and Damion Salvatore, Garret Park, MD
• Mona Scheraga, Hackensack, NJ
• Barbara/Richard Schwartzchild, Long Island, NY
• Anonymous, Piermont, NY (3)
Education:
• Cooper Union: Arts Students League
• Academy of Figurative Art
Commercial experience/clients:
• Stark Associates, a creative design studio
• Senior partner and art director, Stark Hoffman Kevis, complete creative service
• Albert Einstein College of Medicine
• Beth Abraham Hospital
• Englewood Hospital
• Lenox Hill hospital
• Long Island Jewish Medical Center
• IBM
• Isabell Geriatric Center
• Maimonides Hospital
• Montefiore Hospital
• NYC Department for the Aging
• Project House (subcontracted work for most major pharmaceutical houses such as Schering Corp.)
© Sonia Stark. All Rights Reserved. Email Sonia
