ARTIST STATEMENT
I am interested in the natural world and its connection with the human psyche. My sculptures are constructed primarily of wood, and I work with such materials as paper, twine, concrete, and steel. I often incorporate impermanent elements – ice, fire, erosion, gravity – which leave their mark and allude to the passage of time. The stains left by the fugitive materials refer to the destruction of nature and the devastating imprint that humans have imposed on the environment. I was trained as a carpenter and woodworker and value the beauty of craftsmanship, as well as the importance of ritual. Working by hand, I combine knowledge and intuition, bridging the gap between mind and heart. My work addresses our need to reconnect with nature to heal the primal wounds of the human psyche. Beyond the physicality of the objects that I create, there are the invisible agents that speak to the heart.
BIO
Kurt Steger has been a carpenter, woodworker, and sculptor for over four decades. He brings a high level of craftsmanship, design, and ingenuity to his creations, which in turn express his concern for the environment and humanity. His work has many influences, from Shamanism to Buddhism to Western psychology. Steger’s accomplishments include an installation in Sacramento City Hall in Sacramento, CA, a traffic circle sculpture in Grass Valley, CA, and an interactive sculpture and healing ceremony conducted at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art in Washington D.C., honoring the ten-year anniversary of 9/11. Steger's work is in private, public, and museum collections, and in 2017 he received a NYFA Sculpture Grant. He teaches woodworking classes and recently started a public woodworking program for children in which he emphasizes the importance of working with one’s hands as a way of building positive character traits.
CV 2025
AWARDS
2017 NYFA Fellowship Grant, Sculpture
PUBLIC ART: COMMISSIONS AND PERFORMANCES
2016 Scribing the Void, Real Art Ways, Hartford, CT: included performance by the Hartford Symphony
2011 Burden Boat Project, Smithsonian Museum, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC
2010 The Elders, Traffic Circle, Grass Valley, CA
2008 Emergence, Reichmuth Park, Sacramento, CA
2006 Reflections, Sacramento City Hall, Sacramento, CA
COLLECTIONS
Hammond Museum, North Salem, NY
Ahmanson Collection, Irvine, CA
Taubman Museum, Roanoke, VA
Motorola Collection, Rohnert Park, CA
SOLO SHOWS
2025
Remnants of an Urban Dream, Rockland Center for the Arts, Rockland, NY
Outdoor Works, Perry Lawson Gallery, Nyack, NY
Outdoor Works, Hammond Museum, North Salem, NY
2024
Outdoor Sculptures, Hammond Museum, North Salem, NY
2019
Environmental Structures, Garrison Art Center, Garrison NY
2017
Meltdown, Drawing Rooms, Jersey City, NJ
2016
Scribing the Void, ODETTA Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Scribing the Void, Real Art Ways, Hartford, CT
RECLAIMED, ArtHelix, Brooklyn, NY
New Works, Randall Scott Projects, Baltimore, MD
2012
Sculpture and Recent Works, Les Yeux du Monde, Charlottesville, VA
2011
Burden Boat Project, Smithsonian Museum, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC
Silent Nature, Olin Hall, Roanoke College, Salem, VA
2009
Primal States and Portals, Perspectives Gallery, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA
Burden Boat Project, Perspectives Gallery, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA
2008
Confluence of Form, Columbus Cultural Arts Center, Columbus, OH
Resurface, Quicksilver Mine Company, Forestville, CA
2005
Rise & Fall, Site-specific installation, Gallery 131, Grass Valley, CA
2002
Weight of Time, Julie Baker Fine Art, Grass Valley, CA
1997
Walking Stick Project, Cultural Arts Council of Sonoma County, Santa Rosa, CA
GROUP SHOWS
2025
Destination Earth, Ligenza Moore Gallery, Cold Spring, NY
2024
Welcome Home, Jane Street Art Center, Saugerties, NY
2023
Axis Mundi, Les Yeux du Monde, Charlottesville, VA
Driven to Abstraction, Hammond Museum, North Salem, NY
BUILT III, Lockwood Gallery, Kingston, NY
2022
Turn On the Light, Les Yeux du Monde, Charlottesville, VA
2021
BUILT II: Architecture in Art, Lockwood Gallery, Kingston, NY
2020
BUILT: Architecture in Art & Design, Lockwood Gallery, Kingston, NY
Spring Show, Les Yeux du Monde, Charlottesville, VA
2018
Define Gravity, Sculpture in the Ahmanson Collection, Irvine, CA (curated by John Silvis)
On Another Note: The Intersection of Art and Music, Lyman Allyn Museum, New London, CT (curated by Alva Greenberg)
Aftermath, Fred Giampietro Gallery, New Haven, CT
2017
Pending, Governor's Island Art Fair, New York, NY
Pending, an installation at ODETTA Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2016
FLUX Art Fair, with ODETTA Gallery, Marcus Garvey Park, Harlem, NY
2015
Structures, a group show curated by Keith Schweitzer, Manny Cantor Center, NY, NY
2014
Lodge, City Drift, Portland, ME
Lodge, ArtHelix, Brooklyn, NY
2012
Aftermath, Artifact, New York, NY
2010
From the Forest Floor, Selden Gallery, Norfolk, VA
2008
Mixed Response, SDFA Gallery at The Jacksonville Center for the Arts Floyd, VA2006
2005
(R)evolution, Gallery 555, Oakland Museum of California at City Center, Oakland, CA
2003
Wingspan, Site-specific work, Foresight Foundation, Haines Gallery, Nevada City, CA
2001
Mixed Media, Sonoma Museum of Visual Art, Santa Rosa, CA
1999
Sculpture, Sagato Garo Gallery, Sacramento, CA
1998
Mixed Mediums, Northern California Center of the Arts, Grass Valley, CA
Zen At Hand, The Artful Eye, Healdsburg, CA
1996
Water and Wood, The Quicksilver Mine Company, Sebastopol, CA
Ancestral Witness, Arts Guild of Sonoma, Sonoma, CA
1995
Altars To The Earth, Ren Brown Collection, Bodega Bay, CA