Guy Hepner Gallery

Eric Stefanski 10 of Hearts For Sale

Eric Stefanski
Eric Stefanski - 10 of Hearts, 2025, Oil on canvas

10 of Hearts, 2025

Oil on canvas

16 x 20 in 40.6 x 50.8 cm

About this work

Eric Stefanski's "10 of Hearts" presents a striking meditation on love, chance, and emotional accumulation. The canvas holds the titular phrase rendered in Stefanski's characteristic approach—words functioning not merely as language but as visual architecture, their letterforms carrying the weight of sentiment and memory. The composition balances the numeric and symbolic, evoking the playing card's associations with fortune, games of risk, and the vulnerable gambles inherent in human connection. Stefanski builds his surfaces with deliberate intention, allowing paint to gather and recede around each character. The text emerges from the canvas with a presence that feels both declarative and intimate, as though whispered and shouted simultaneously. Color choices anchor the emotional temperature of the work, while the physicality of the oil medium adds depth and luminosity that rewards sustained looking. There is a quietness to the piece despite its directness—a contemplative space where viewers can project their own histories onto the familiar phrase. Within Stefanski's broader practice, "10 of Hearts" continues his investigation of language as emotional vessel. His text-based works strip away pictorial distraction to confront what words hold beneath their surface meanings. The playing card reference introduces an element of chance and fate, suggesting that matters of the heart remain perpetually uncertain, always a deal of the cards. The work resonates with universal themes while maintaining the personal, almost confessional quality that distinguishes Stefanski's paintings. For inquiries regarding acquisition of "10 of Hearts," please contact Guy Hepner gallery in New York.

Price on Application

Sell or Consign

Edition & Provenance

Year
2025
Medium
Oil on canvas

More from this series

Related Reading

Watch

More series by Eric Stefanski

About the Small Canvases Series

Series Performance & Market Position Eric Stefanski's paintings occupy a distinctive position within the contemporary American art market — combining the visual vocabulary of Pop Art and street culture with a formally rigorous approach to colour, composition, and text that has attracted serious collector attention. At Guy Hepner, Stefanski works have been placed with collectors drawn to accessible, wit-driven contemporary painting that rewards both immediate engagement and sustained looking.

Stefanski's paintings are priced from approximately $5,000 to $35,000 depending on scale and complexity, with commissioned works and sold-out series commanding premiums on the secondary market. His work has attracted fashion, entertainment, and finance collectors who respond to its cultural fluency and visual confidence.

Technical & Historical Context Stefanski's practice draws on advertising, commercial signage, and the aesthetics of American vernacular culture, recontextualising familiar visual language within the formal conventions of fine art painting. His works typically combine text — often humorous, ironic, or affirmatory statements — with bold graphic compositions executed in acrylic on canvas or panel.

His engagement with popular culture is knowing rather than merely appropriative: Stefanski filters consumer imagery through an art-historical awareness that connects his practice to Pop Art predecessors while maintaining a distinctly contemporary voice.

Individual Works & Collector Preferences Stefanski's text-based works generate the strongest collector response, particularly those that strike a balance between wit and formal precision. Works from early sold-out series have demonstrated meaningful secondary market appreciation, reflecting both collector attachment and constrained supply.

Large-scale paintings work particularly effectively in the residential and commercial contexts where Stefanski's collector base predominantly operates.

Authentication & Condition Considerations Stefanski's works are authenticated through his studio. The acrylic medium is stable and relatively robust; works stored and displayed appropriately require minimal conservation attention.

Investment Analysis & 2026 Acquisition Strategy Stefanski's consistent output and expanding collector base position his paintings as strong acquisitions at their current price points. His primary market remains accessible, creating genuine upside opportunity for early collectors as his institutional profile continues to develop.

Contact Guy Hepner at 177 10th Avenue, New York to discuss Eric Stefanski painting availability and placement.

View full series →
10 of Hearts

About Eric Stefanski

Eric Stefanski is a Chicago based artist known for large scale abstract paintings that incorporate bold, handwritten text. He studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and earned his MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in 2015.

Stefanski's work merges expressive mark making with direct, often humorous or self-deprecating phrases, using language as a way into larger themes around vulnerability, failure, and the pressures of maintaining a creative practice. His large-scale canvases favor vibrant color and bold lettering, with text functioning less as slogan and more as fragments of internal dialogue, blending humor with genuine emotional weight. Through this approach, Stefanski examines what it means to sustain a life as a working artist, treating uncertainty and contradiction as part of the process rather than something to resolve.

His work has been shown extensively in Chicago and Boston, along with solo exhibitions in cities including Tokyo and Madrid, and has continued to expand into galleries and institutions internationally.

He continues to live and work in Chicago.

Guy Hepner works with collectors seeking Eric Stefanski's bold, text-driven abstract paintings. Contact us to discuss available inventory or to inquire about upcoming releases.

View all works →