Shimon Okshteyn: Steam Iron, 2002

“Okshteyn’s works, whatever their medium, tread a fine line between representa­tion and abstraction, veering more to the latter the closer one looks.”  ___ Donald Kuspit, New York

“These drawings are also highly autobiographical. The range of subjects Okshteyn has painted over the years — from old hats and clothing to out-of-date appliances to high-class comestibles — reveal his own unfolding interaction with life in the United States after his years in the Soviet Union.”  ___ Ivan Karp, New York

“Shimon Okshteyn’s monumental graphite drawing of a steam iron lends sculptural solemnity to a mundane appliance. It stands on its heel, a rubber cord coiled around its base like a decorative architrave of a plinth. A squat obelisk, Mr. Okshteyn’s iron takes on the poignance of Cleopatra’s Needle, scarred with the traces of time but still upright.”   ___ Maureen Mullarkey, The New York Sun, Here Is The Thing. Simple Thing, Katonah Museum of Art, NY

Provenance:
Grinnell College Museum of Art, Grinnell, IA, 2002
Katonah Art Museum, Katonah, NY, 2008