"Heart Throbs" by Mary Stephenson at Chapter NY

Chapter NY Gallery, Hearthrobs

Mary Stephenson's "Heart Throbs" solo exhibition at Chapter NY Gallery invites viewers to explore memory and emotion retrospectively. The artist turns the unconscious and memories into physical spaces, transforming surfaces into a medium for storytelling. For example, she applies thin layers of brightly colored paint that seep and recede into her canvases before revealing a final image.


Works like “Strong Parasols” capture this, with glowing geometric orbs suspended in a haze surrounded by a perspective environment. The work “Blue Stage” also does something similar, portraying a staircase ascending into a tranquil void, offering a contemplative metaphor for the passage of time and memory.

Strong Parasols, 2024
Oil on Linen
160x200cm

Blue Stage, 2024
Oil on Linen
170x200cm

Stephenson invites viewers to look closer at minute gestures such as a change of color, little marks, or light slivers, which are memory points. Stephenson's canvases have diffused edges and sharp lines, drawing the eye across compositions that expand and contract within vast yet barely populated fields of vision. These diffused edges and sharp lines suggest a desire for connection and belonging.


Stephenson wishes to explore the quiet intimacy of loneliness, seeing how to occupy and give meaning to a space without the presence of a being. Many works play on perspective composition, like one-point perspective, which pulls the eye towards a point. This allows the viewer to interpret Stephenson’s emotions and memories through a vast or intricate space, with the surfaces acting as touchstones for personal experiences.


Though the works exude an introspective calm, the exhibition may be too subtle, leaving some pieces feeling unresolved. "Heart Throbs" offers a captivating meditation on memory's emotional and spatial dimensions.

Alvin You