Stephen Althouse

"I feel compelled to portray aspects of the human race. I utilize old implements as depictions of ourselves rather than making literal portrayals of people Intertwined within these are representations of people, thoughts, and experiences of my own life."
-Stephen Althouse

Artist-photographer Stephen Althouse's personal experiences serve as inspiration for his visual expressions of life. He combines found or fabricated objects into cryptic assemblages and then photographs the assemblages onto large format film. Lacing his images with visual autobiographical narrative themes that recur and crisscross throughout his images, Althouse has created a unique and mysterious visual language of personal symbols and metaphors.

Awarded a 2003-2004 Fulbright Research Fellowship, Althouse resided in Belgium, creating work as an artist-in-residence at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Liege. He received additional grants from Epson/Seiko and Hahnemhle papers of Germany in support of his fine art digital printing. In addition to being widely exhibited, his fine art photography has been extensively collected by major museums and private collectors throughout North America, South America, and Europe.

Althouse was raised in rural Buck County, Pennsylvania and received his Master of Fine Arts degree in Sculpture from Virginia Commonwealth University. Trips to the Mercer Museum have been a touchstone for his artistic practice and have led to interest in objects of labor and everyday life. For more than thirty years, he has lived in Miami where he has held a position of Professor of Fine Arts at Barry University. Also, Althouse has been periodically teaching in Paris, London, Madrid, and South America. Currently, his residence and studio is located in central Pennsylvania.

Exhibitions
Relics, Susquehanna Art Museum, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 2017
Salthouse, Samek Art Museum, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, 2016
Personal Symbols, Private Totems, Museum of Art-DeLand, Florida, 2014
The Tools, Allentown Art Museum of the Lehigh Valley, Allentown, Pennsylvania, 2012-2013
Tools and Shrouds, Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton, Florida, 2009
Stephen Althouse, The Art Museum of Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, 2006

Collections
Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton, Florida
Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts
Center for Photography, Woodstock, New York
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, Michigan
Harvard University Photography Archives, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, Illinois
Museum of Photography, Antwerp, Belgium
Museum of Modern Art, Vienna, Austria
Tokyo Photographic Cultural Center, Tokyo, Japan

Publications
Salthouse, R. Rinehart, 2016
Stephen Althouse, W.M. Blazier et al, 2009

Innova Artist Grant, Innova Fine Art Papers, USA, 2009
Fulbright Research Fellowship, Artist-in-Residence, Musee d'Art Moderne et d'Art, 2003-2004
Contemporain, Liege, Belgium Council for International Exchange of Scholars, Washington, D.C.
Epson/Seiko Artist Grant, Epson Europe, Dusseldorf, Germany, 2003-2004
Hahnemhle Artist Grant, Hahnemhle Fine Art Papers, Einbeck, Germany, 2003-2004
Walter D. Roberts Award, Society for the Four Arts, Palm Beach, Florida, 2002
Award for Research and Creative Activity, St. Thomas University, Miami, Florida, 2000