Stephanie Buer has been exploring the decay and evolution of cityscapes since studying at College for Creative Studies in Detroit in the mid-2000s, where she began to pursue a career in painting and drawing. In her charcoal works, these urban scenes garner a sense of desolation, stripped of even fading hues or sunlight. Buer was last featured on Hi-Fructose in 2014, here.
The realism offered in Buer’s work, with its intricate linework and shading, is also owed to research, as she takes her camera into urban environments and explores the areas herself. Even when faced with blight, there’s an elegant and inviting quality to the work, even amid tires and puddles and deteriorating walls. Buer’s website offers a perspective tethered between city and nature in the artist’s work: “In the juxtaposition between decay and growth, Stephanie finds a place that echoes the peace she finds in nature, with its endless cycles of change.”
Buer now lives in Portland, and she’s currently part of a group show at the city’s Stephanie Chefas Projects. The work of Buer, Delfin Finley, Lily Mae Martin, Ian Thomas Miller, Joel Daniel Phillips, Jeff Ramirez, Eric Wert, and Elizabeth Winnel comprise the show “Get Real” (running through July 2), which surveys realism and hyperrealism of all subjects through the artists.
