Steven Kinder

Yellow Light, Framed

Steven Kinder is a painter who uses geometric abstraction to convey energy, form and movement. Through colors and shapes, he creates tension and elicits an emotional response from his viewers. He has made drawings, paintings and large-scale work for over 40 years expressing these ideas. 

Born in Queens, New York, Kinder studied at the Cooper Union in the 1970s. Early in his career, Kinder used flat house paint on raw, unprimed canvas. Unsatisfied, he added warm water, trying to achieve a transparent quality, before discovering raw pigment and linen. Translucent and vivid, the mix of materials allowed Kinder to develop his signature look, giving his geometric shapes new meaning and depth. 

He developed a style that involves angular shapes in unison with emotive colors, similar to those used by American abstract painter Mark Rothko. His work also echoes the sorrowful sentiments conveyed by British painter Francis Bacon, a source of inspiration. Kinder’s communication solely through color choice and abstract forms, meanwhile, is an approach akin to that of Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky. 

Kinder has several distinctive painting practices, including placing blue painter’s tape around the perimeter of a work to help confine his art to a designated space. The textural difference adds a physical barrier that also catches the end of brush strokes, extending the piece softly over its border. 

When translating drawings into monumental projects like murals, he uses the drawing as a reference rather than projecting it or using graphs to scale it. By working free-hand on these large projects, Kinder can adapt his art to a space and play with translucency and color.

Today, he is based in both Brooklyn and Watermill, New York. He is represented by the George Billis Gallery.

On 1stDibs, find a collection of Steven Kinder’s paintings and mixed media pieces.