Jay Stern's (b. Columbus, OH) paintings explore the non-linear nature of memory. He adroitly maneuvers between locations, objects, light and shadow, windows looking in and looking out. Perspectives shift and coalesce to create quotidian relationships, but those that are steeped in experience. Through stacking and collaging, Stern finds a freedom in abstraction that is used to combine, contrast, and mold together pictures. Swathes of space are created through meticulous details that offer a compositional moment of play. The artist expounds upon forebears such as Richard Diebenkorn and Marsden Hartley, continuing the lineage of American landscape painting imbued with his life in coastal Maine. 

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Stern received his MFA from Seattle University and his work resides in the collections of the Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME; James Castle House Collection, Boise, ID; Fidelity Art Collection, Boston, MA; and U.S. Bank Center at Cedar Hall, Seattle, WA. Recent solo exhibitions include The Return in Welcome at Andrew Reed Gallery (2025), Slow Opening at NOON Projects, Los Angeles, CA (2024), and Awning at Grant Wahlquist Gallery, Portland, ME (2024). Stern’s work is currently included in the Ogunquit Museum's American Conversations, timed to the 250th anniversary of the United States' founding, as well as our presentation at the Dallas Art Fair. The artist will present a special project in Paris later this year, and the gallery will present a solo exhibition of his work in 2028.