Jay Stern

Jay Stern (b. 1991, Columbus, OH) is a painter whose jewel-toned compositions hover on the edge between abstraction and representation, bridging interior and exterior space through faceted arrangements of seen and remembered images. His work gives deep attention to quotidian subject matter, everyday kitchens, awnings, laundry lines, domestic interiors, finding in those environments evidence of human life without needing the figure present. Art critic Jorge Arango captured something essential about the work: Stern's energetic brushstrokes and layering of color make images feel perpetually morphing and moving. He cites Cézanne, Braque, Yvonne Jacquette, Milton Avery, and Howard Hodgkin among his influences, a lineage of painters who understood the active nature of interior space and the landscape quietly folded inside it.

Stern received his BFA in Painting from the University of Cincinnati and his MFA in Arts Leadership from Seattle University. He attended the James Castle House Residency in Boise, Idaho and the Hewnoaks Residency in Lovell, Maine, and was awarded a grant from the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation in 2024. Art New England named him one of ten emerging New England artists to watch. His solo exhibition Awning at Grant Wahlquist Gallery was reviewed by the Portland Press Herald and named a show to see by Boston Art Review.

His work has been exhibited at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art, the Portland Museum of Art, Sears Peyton Gallery, Koplin Del Rio, Studio e, Able Baker Contemporary, and NOON Projects, among others. This year Stern presents solo exhibitions in Portland, Maine and Los Angeles, and appears in As We Are at the Portland Museum of Art. His work is held in the public collections of the US Bank Center in Seattle and the James Castle Collection of the City of Boise, Idaho.