
Paintings
75 works

I Adore You (Large), 2025
Oil on Canvas
60 x 48 in 152.4 x 121.9 cm
Eric Stefanski's "I Adore You (Large)" presents the titular phrase rendered across a substantial sixty-by-forty-eight-inch canvas, the words functioning simultaneously as declaration and image. The scale transforms what might be whispered intimacy into something approaching monument, the enlarged text demanding confrontation rather than permitting passive reception. Stefanski builds his letters through layered oil, each stroke carrying material weight that photographs cannot fully convey—the buildup of pigment creating subtle topographies across the canvas surface, shadows pooling in the valleys between brushstrokes. The work exemplifies Stefanski's ongoing investigation into language as emotional artifact. Words, in his practice, are never simply read; they are experienced as physical presence, their meaning inseparable from their making. "I Adore You" occupies a particular register within the vocabulary of love—more reverent than casual affection, less fraught than desperate need. Stefanski isolates this phrase from context, from speaker and recipient, allowing it to float as pure sentiment materialized. The viewer becomes both the one who adores and the one adored, collapsing the distance between expression and reception. Within Stefanski's broader body of work, this piece represents his continued refinement of text as portraiture of feeling. The large format amplifies the emotional stakes, the words scaled to match the grandeur of the sentiment they carry. There is vulnerability in such direct statement, a refusal of irony that feels increasingly rare. Those interested in acquiring "I Adore You (Large)" are invited to contact Guy Hepner gallery in New York for further information.


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.