Gaylen Stewart, M.F.A.
Residential Faculty
Department: Art & Humanities
Contact Information
Campus: Main
Office Number: O3-110
Email: gaylen.stewart@gccaz.edu
Phone number: (623) 845-3122
Biography
Gaylen Stewart is an educator and practicing, professional artist working in oil, watercolor and mixed media. He loves nature, it's inherent design and beauty. His work explores science, philosophy and the spiritual. His work is inspired by the symbolism of Northern Renaissance artists and contemporary artists like Anselm Kiefer and Terry Winters.
He instructs 2D design, watercolor, painting and drawing. Prior to GCC, he held a position as Associate Professor of Art at Grand Canyon University in Arizona, and also taught at Ohio University and the University of Rio Grande in Ohio.
He earned an AA in art at Green River Community College, a BA in painting at Central Washington University and a Master of Fine Arts in painting, with a second major in art history, from Ohio University.
The Ohio Arts Council awarded him several professional grants and fellowships including two Individual Artist’s Fellowships, a Projects Grant and a Professional Development Award. He also received a grant awarded by Robert Rauschenberg and James Rosenquist. In 2016, he completed a sabbatical of new artworks focusing on science and spiritual connections to math, nature and healing.
His art has been represented in over one hundred exhibitions, including thirty-three solo shows at museums, art centers and galleries. He collaborated with poet, Steve Scott, as part of an art projects grant that culminated in a cross-disciplinary, art installation of paintings, spoken word and music. Text has continued to inform his work along with his personal, symbolic iconography.
His artwork has been reviewed, published and reproduced in several publications including: New American Paintings, Vol. 22, USA. Open Studios, USA; Radix magazine, UK; ARTYFACT, the Magazine of the Arts Centre Group, London, UK; and Dialogue, Arts in the Midwest, USA.
“My wife and I are best friends and enjoy hiking, traveling and watching movies together. I'm a musician as well as a visual artist. I play guitar, keyboards and sing. My faith is a very important part of my life and art.”
