Biography
Stephanie Rond was born in Columbus Ohio. She attended Fort Hayes Arts and Academic High School and went on to earn a Bachelor of Fine Arts from The Ohio State University in 1997. Her most recent body of work deals with human nature, animal instinct, gender, and the culture of graffiti and street art. She is a 2011-2012 artist in residence at the Wexner Center for the Arts in the Pages program as well as a recipient of the 2010 Ohio State University Emerging Artist Fellowship. Stephanie has had solo and group shows in Columbus, Chicago, Detroit, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Atlanta and has exhibited in many juried shows including "Art at the X" in Cincinnati in which she won first prize. In addition, Stephanie is Curator of the Carnegie Gallery at Main Library and S.Dot Gallery. She is co-founder of Creative Arts of Women (CAW) and is part of the art collective, Cowtown Lowbrow.
Statement
As an Irish American, I have a cultural history of storytelling. I create artwork that on the surface tells a safe and comfortable story using recognizable images. As the viewer engages and considers the narrative, the deeper, more uncomfortable truths begin to emerge. The pieces are not intended to hold the answers about humanity, but rather cultivate questions to consider and discuss. My goal is to create work that serves as a springboard for meaningful conversation.
Each piece in this show discusses what is considered an outdoor or indoor space. As a street artist, I wanted to bring the medium indoors to challenge the boundaries that define the genre and provoke the questions; what is art? What is the proper space for art? Should I be limited to traditional materials only? One of my inspirations for becoming a street artist was to challenge the boundaries of gender. Street art is male dominated.
Throughout my career as a visual artist I have challenged and questioned patriarchy. This body of work continues that story. After 20 years of working as a feminist painter I thought the world would be more advanced today, but the current "war on women" demonstrates that we are taking steps backward. My stories are now more relevant than when I started painting.
Advertisement in modern civilization has one of the most powerful impacts on our development as human beings. The minute we are born we are assigned a color and certain toys based on our gender. Why is this? What do these decisions do to equality? Do we continue to allow current marketing schemes to put our future generations into these confined boxes? We all deserve the right to be creative explorers, independents and nurturers.