American artist Stephanie Hirsch creates conceptual objects that explore themes of self-transformation and awareness.
Using mediums often associated with women’s work, Hirsch pairs words and images to metaphorically represent notions of strength, courage, humanity, rebirth and renewal. Stitched together with a feminist bent, her works delve deep beneath the shimmering surface to contemplate the meaning of words, images, and reality.
Hirsch has exhibited at numerous museums and galleries, including Winston Wachter Fine Art, New York City, Lyons Wier Gallery, New York City; Unix Gallery, New York City, the New Gallery of Modern Art, Charlotte, North Carolina; the Watermill Center, Watermill, New York; the Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, Colorado; and the De Re Gallery, Los Angeles. She has participated in numerous art fairs, such as Art Miami, Miami, Florida (2016), and Art Southampton, Southampton, New York (2016).
Hirsch’s work is also part of the permanent collection at the Newcomb Museum at Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana. In 2012, Hirsch was commissioned by beauty brand Erno Lazlo to create a window installation for Harrod’s London, in celebration of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.
In 2015 Hirsch completed her artist residency at P3 Studio, curated in partnership with the nonprofit Art Production Fund at the Cosmopolitan Hotel of Las Vegas, where she presented #LightSeeker, an aesthetically charged interactive installation. In early 2018, Hirsch was included in Flora, a group show at Cornell Art Museum, Delray Beach, Florida. She was also selected by ArtLeadHER and the Carole A. Feuerman Sculpture Foundation to participate in Senses & Perception at Mana Contemporary, Jersey City, New Jersey. This same year, Hirsch exhibited in The Ideal Feminine/The Feminine Ideal? a group show at Winston Wächter Fine Art Gallery, New York, New York.
Hirsch’s work is be published in 50 Contemporary Women Artists in the World at Large.
How did you find yourself in the arts – or how did the arts find you?
I had something called the Dark Night of the Soul. This is when you literally break as a human so you can be rebuilt into what you were always supposed to become. Words have power and when I was in this dark place words were the only thing that could both comfort and keep me going. Art found me when I could not find myself.
Who has been a big influence to you in your career?
I believe the biggest influence for me has been transcendental meditation. Through meditation I am able to delve deep into my inner ocean and find the treasures that reside deep within my soul.
When you hit a creative block, how do you move forward?
I ask spirit what is it trying to show me. I trust that what I ask for in spirit I will receive at the perfect time in the physical. The answers always come when we release the need to control.
How do you define success?
Peace in my soul and the blessings to have the freedom to utilize time as I see fit.
What message do you hope your work communicates?
I hope that people find a peaceful power in my work. That they find the courage within themselves to live as authentically and passionately as possible. To realize that the now is all that we have and to make the most out of every moment.
What has been an important lesson you have learned during your career?
That everything ebbs and flows. Sometimes you’re hot and others times you’re not. And most importantly EAT YOUR EGO
What advice might you give to your younger self?
Trust yourself. Be bold, be brave, be courageous. That fear is a liar and that you are perfect just the way you are. That you must become yours before you are ever anyone else’s.