Here: Paintings by Stephen Niles The Contemporary Museum at First Hawaiian Center October 7, 2005 - January 24, 2006

Stephen Niles' exhibition includes images painted from photographs of pre-existing spaces, closet interiors to be more specific. Many contemporary artists use photography as an aid. A portraitist, for example, may take Polaroids of their subject to be used as a visual reference. The photographs in this case become like auxiliary memories. With Niles, by contrast, the photographs he takes are not altered by cropping or editing, but are painted precisely as they are using the original snapshot as a basic guide. In photo-realism, subject matter is frequently banal and without particular interest; the true subject of a photo-realist work is the way in which the artist interprets photographs and paintings in order to create an internal representation of the object or scene depicted.

In his hanger series Niles plays with a painting's ability to act on multiple levels. Initially an abstract painter concerned with non-objective painting and flatness, his return to figuration retains an interest in "the literal subject as a kind of flatness stand in." By choosing the subject of hanging clothes, Niles ties both the subject matter and the actual painting together through the "hanging" of the work on the wall. Niles is also aware of how color choice and composition affect the work. He states: "The random yet specific framing of the hangers, their arrangement in the painting, and the spontaneous rhythm of color and contour struck me as truthful."

Also included in this exhibition are a series of small gouaches. These depict figures lifted out of their context painted on a solid colored background. Niles has taken these images from fashion magazines and photographs. Removing the background from the picture allows the viewer to create a new set of circumstances for the subject.

Niles received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting from the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 1987 and his Master of Fine Arts in Painting from Pratt Institute in 1994. He has exhibited recently at Kapiolani Community College's Koa Gallery and was included in Artists of Hawaii 2004 at the Honolulu Academy of Arts.