Shimon Okshteyn: Cheek To Cheek, 1985

“Some men are so made that for them women provide a constant spectacle. Shimon Okshteyn is such a man. And so it is that those women who contrive to reinforce their powers of seduction would inevitably attract the attention of a man who watches women and who is an artist! Besides, how can an artist worthy of that name not observe women? Have they not been since the beginning of time as much a lesson in the art of inciting the look of another, be it that of their own rivals, as in the art of using forms and colors.”  ___José Pierre, Paris

“Using different techniques allows Shimon Okshteyn to generate rich and complex surfaces, where collage has a lion’s share. A work is often designed as a huge pattern where each item is adjusted against another to build an image. Neighborly relationships participate in a new visual unity and semantic meaning of the work.”  __Jean-Pierre Garand, Art Historian