ON VIEW THRU DECEMBER 30, 2023: Works by the late abstract artist Ted Stamm at the McClain Gallery include paintings on shaped supports, iconic graphite drawings, collage, photographic documentation of his street art, and archival material.

One of the foremost multidisciplinary and conceptual artists working in SoHo in downtown Manhattan in the 1970s and early 1980s, Stamm is recognized as one of the more rigorous and impactful artists of his generation. His untimely death at age 40 translated into some obscurity to his name, but the mystique of the man and intensity of his production make up for his short lifetime.

In his New York City studio, starting in 1968, Stamm developed and researched focused series of paintings, works on paper, and studies that followed strict rules and forms. Woosters, Dodgers, and documentation of his street art series titled Designators carry the bulk of our exhibition. Stamm’s practice extended beyond his studio, to areas including mail art, artists books, photography, site-specific installations, and many others. Many of Stamm’s inspirations derive from observing everyday objects, experiences, and events, such as seeing an abstract shape on the street or lines on a baseball field. Stamm’s works are fully abstract, and it is unnecessary for the viewer to know the origins of what they are looking at in order to experience them the way the artist intended. Black is a consistent component of Stamm’s work, a color that he associated with rebellion, rigor, and reduction: the keystones of his expansive practice.