Stephen Althouse

Reflecting back on my trip to Berlin I realize that what I responded the most to was work that was streamlined and clearly seen. A friend, Tina Schelhorn from Galerie Lichtblick in Cologne suggested I check out Gallery Ruhnke while visiting the palace in Potsdam. There was an exhibition there titled Concrete Conceptions which was primarily sculptural. Every piece in the show was elegant, each piece streamlined to the clearest and cleanest lines. It was so refreshing and exciting to see the work. It was thru the gallery that I became aware of the photographic work of Stephen Althouse, an American born artist.

Rake I, 2003, pigment print, 42 x 31 inches

Inlay, 2003, pigment print, 42 x 31 inches

Closed Tongs, 2004, pigment print,59.5 x 88 inches

Clamps and Shroud, 2003,pigment print
59.5 x 88 inches

Saw I, 2003, pigment print 42 x 31 inches


The following was written for a show by WENDY M. BLAZIER
Senior Curator, Boca Raton Museum of Art

Tools and Shrouds
Stephen Althouse
Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton, Florida
SEPTEMBER 9 – NOVEMBER 8, 2009

FROM THE EARLIEST DAYS OF PHOTOGRAPHY, the pictorial documentation of the world around us has held infinite fascination as the subject for photographers. And from the beginning, the photographic image was as influential as the printed word. Even today, when we look at a photograph, we tend to “read” the image for its informational content. Stephen Althouse’s images can be read as metaphors for the interconnectedness of secular and spiritual life. His images combine the practical and symbolic, weaving a relationship between tools and
textiles as venerated symbols of work and faith. Like medieval devotional relics and honorific textiles, Althouse’s tools and shrouds become symbols of power and reverence, engaging the viewer in a dialogue about history, humanity, tradition and spirituality.

Born in Washington DC in 1948, Althouse grew up in rural Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where he trained as a sculptor. The product of a Quaker education, Althouse received his MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, and studied sculpture at Tyler School of Art,
Philadelphia. The sculptural tradition of making and manipulating subject matter is carried over in his photography, and is further explored in these enigmatic and powerful images. For 30 years, Althouse lived in Miami where he was a Professor of Fine Arts at Barry University, before
returning to central Pennsylvania, where he lives and works creatively today.

This exhibition presents Stephen Althouse’s most recent work as well as a series of powerful images which the artist created in 2003 and 2004 while serving as artist-inresidence at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Liège, Belgium, through a Fulbright Research Fellowship.

The Museum is pleased to share this exhibition and publication with a larger audience in both Canada and Germany. We feel it is important to show Stephen Althouse’s recent work and to create a scholarly catalogue that amplifies our understanding of his compelling
images. For their very generous support of this publication, we thank Lawrence D. and Lucienne Lefebvre Glaubinger of The Glaubinger Foundation. We thank Dr. Eugene W. Metcalf, Jr. and Dr. Mark McPhail for their perceptive essay which constitutes a significant contribution to this publication. For their presentation of concurrent exhibitions of Stephen
Althouse’s photography, we thank Jacqueline Hébert Stoneberger of Beaux-arts des Amériques in Montréal, and Werner Ruhnke of Galerie Ruhnke, Potsdam, outside Berlin, Germany. Lastly, we extend our heartfelt thanks to the Museum’s trustees and donors, who have demonstrated their commitment to the Museum in their support of the Museum’s ambitious and internationally-recognized exhibition program.
WENDY M. BLAZIER
Senior Curator, Boca Raton Museum of Art