STEPHEN MUMFORD

BIOGRAPHY

Steve Mumford was born in 1960. He got his BFA from the Boston Museum School/Tufts in 1986, and an MFA from the School of Visual Arts in 1994.

He has shown his work professionally in NYC since 1996, first at Tricia Collins Grand Salon, then at Postmasters Gallery, where he’s had 7 solo shows. He’s shown his work in galleries and institutions throughout the US and Europe, including the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, the Meadows Museum, and Marella Arte Contemporanea in Milan. His drawings have been published in numerous portfolios in Harpers Magazine, as well as in a book published by Drawn & Quarterly Press, Baghdad Journal, and BOMB Magazine.

Steve made drawing trips to Iraq and Afghanistan during the war in 2003, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2011. He was sometimes embedded, sometimes independent, always attempting to draw from life. Besides war, events he has drawn for Harpers include the BP oil spill, rallies for Donald Trump, POWs at Guantanamo, and soldiers recovering at Walter Reed and Brooke Army Medical Center. He often makes oil paintings based on the subjects he’s drawn.

Steve currently teaches at the New York Academy of Art and SVA. He lives with his wife, the painter Inka Essenhigh, and their son in NYC.

STATEMENT

I went to Iraq for the first time in late April, 2003, just after the US invasion, as a civilian artist. I wanted to document whatever I could see of the 'war on terror', although at that time the war was considered over by most of the troops and the Iraqis I met. This would change in short order, and I continued to record this change in drawings during eight trips to Iraq and Afghanistan up until 2011.
In Baghdad I got to know a group of Iraqi artists and writers. They introduced me to their favorite gathering spots and gave me some of their perspective on that conflict.
I drew veterans recovering from their combat wounds at Walter Reed Army Hospital and Brook Army Medical Center. I drew the daily routine of doctors, nurses and occasional carnage at the Baghdad ER.

Back from the war I painted larger works in which I tried to distill the deeper meaning of my experiences and my feelings about the soldiers and their war. I continued the project of drawing historical events from life at Guantanamo, along the Louisiana coastline during the BP oil spill, Donald Trump's campaign rallies, and recently, documenting Covid in NYC and the protests in NYC and Portland OR, for Harper's Magazine.

I show my work at Postmasters Gallery in NYC.

ROOM 502