Artist Statement

My work meditates on the nuanced space between action and stillness—between presence and pause, order and chaos, certainty and ambiguity. Through mixed-media painting, I investigate the fleeting moments when perception shifts and time feels suspended, creating work that is both contemplative and alive with energy.

Rooted in experimentation and attentiveness, my process is intuitive and materially responsive: surfaces are poured, stained, sanded, added and removed, broken and recombined. I move in conversation with sensation, memory, and emotional resonance, allowing intuition to shape unexpected forms and relationships. By juxtaposing geometric precision with organic, biomorphic shapes—by layering contemporary hues and ambiguous spaces—I generate compositions that resist fixed meaning, and instead evoke mystery, depth, and the possibility of transformation.

My paintings become a kind of visual listening—an exploration of the silence between beats, and the subtle shifts that mark emotional or perceptual transitions. Layered surfaces, expressive yet restrained mark-making, and contrasts of light and darkness invite viewers into a space where ambiguity is not a void but a presence all its own.

Above all, I aim to represent the inner dialogue of the creative process—the interplay of logic and intuition—and to create spaces where stillness becomes active and discovery unfolds. I invite viewers to show up, feel, and notice—to encounter the work without the need for explanation. Sometimes art simply asks to be felt; in that attentive space, meaning can be found or left behind. My hope is that what lingers is not a single interpretation, but a shared act of presence

Artist Bio

Steven Cabral (b.1978, Cambridge, MA) is a Boston-based painter recognized for his distinctive explorations of the spaces between presence and pause, order and chaos, certainty and ambiguity. His work has been exhibited in numerous galleries, including Mtn Space Gallery, Kingston Gallery, and The Painting Center. Cabral received his BFA in Painting from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and an MFA from Lesley University College of Art and Design. His studio is based in Somerville, MA.

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