Black & White Gallery is pleased to announce the first posthumous survey of Shimon Okshteyn’s work. Through our newly established exhibition space in Southampton, NY we will support The Shimon Okshteyn Estate granting the public greater insight into the artist’s life and career. In doing so, we hope to bring his work back into the spotlight and increase the visibility of his works within the local community and beyond.
The Artist Estate / Part 1 / There Are Many Forms But Few Classics is the inaugural presentation of works from the Estate of the trailblazing American-Ukrainian artist Shimon Okshteyn. It features a carefully curated selection of work from the Estate created by the artist from 1976 to 2019. This is the first presentation of Okshteyn’s works since his passing in 2020. His work has previously been shown at galleries in England, France, Germany, Italy, Russia and at Stux Gallery and OK Harris Works of Art in New York City.
The spotlight of this exhibition is on Okshteyn’s career-long inquiry into how process and material experimentation created entirely new ways to find images. Featuring twenty one works from the Estate, the exhibition traces Okshteyn’s artistic evolution, from his early cityscapes and figurative paintings to his iconic black and white graphite paintings and late vibrant abstract landscapes. more
ARTIST
Born in Ukraine, Shimon Okshteyn has lived and worked in the USA since 1980.
His work has been the subject of many exhibitions since his US debut retrospective exhibition in 1987 at the G.W.V. Smith Museum, Springfield, MA. Other museum solo exhibitions took place at Grinnell College Museum of Art, Grinnell, IA (2002), The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia (2007), and Memorial Art Gallery, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, companion show to Natura Morta: Still-Life Painting and the Medici Collections (2007).
His works were included in Transit. Russian Artists between the East & West, Nassau County Museum of Art (1989-1990), New Acquisitions, Brooklyn Museum of Art (2001), Approaching Objects: Works from the Whitney Museum Permanent Collection, Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC (2003), Extra-Ordinary: Everyday Object in American Art, New York State Museum, Albany, NY (2005), Leaded: The Materiality and Metamorphosis of Graphite, traveling exhibition: University of Richmond Museum, Richmond, VA, Memorial Art Gallery, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, Palmer Museum of Art, University Park, PA, Salina Art Center, Salina, KS (2007-2009), Here’s the Thing: The Single Object Still Life, Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, NY, (2008).
In 2010 several of Okshteyn works were on view at the Galerie Rudolfinum and Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague in the Decadence Now! Visions of Excess exhibition along with such notable artists as Jeff Koons, Gilbert and George and Chapman Brothers.
In 2014 several of his installations from the permanent collection of the Nasher Museum at Duke University were on view at Duke in the summer blockbuster show Connecting and Curating organized by the Rauschenberg Foundation.
In 2022 Shimon Okshteyn's works were included in the New Acquisitions exhibitions at the Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, MI and Grinnell College Museum of Art, Grinnell, IA.
During his successful career Shimon Okshteyn was represented by several international galleries, most notably by OK Harris Works of Art, NYC, Robert Sandelson, London, UK, Le Centre d’Art Vaas, Vence, France, Triumph Gallery, Moscow, Russia, K Gallery, St. Petersburg, Russia, Venet House Gallery, Ulm Germany, Stux Gallery, NYC. Since Stux Gallery closed in 2016, the work of Shimon Okshteyn, who died in 2020, has been without representation.
ESTATE
The aim of The Shimon Okshteyn Estate is to promote and further the legacy of the artist, and by doing so, highlight his work and identity. The past four years have been dedicated to ensuring representation of Okshteyn in major museums such as Flint Institute of Art, MI, Grinnell College Art Museum, IA, and The Telegraph, Czech Republic. This remains the primary objective of the Estate, along with archiving and making the vast assemblage collection of the Estate available to scholars, artists, collectors and the general public through exhibits and publications.