
Paintings
75 works

I'm Obsessed With You, 2025
Oil on canvas
60 x 40 in 152.4 x 101.6 cm
Eric Stefanski's "I'm Obsessed With You" presents its declaration in stark, confrontational terms—the phrase rendered across the canvas with the artist's characteristic directness, where language becomes both image and confession. The words occupy the surface with an intensity that mirrors their meaning, each letter carrying the weight of emotional exposure. Stefanski's approach strips away pictorial distraction, allowing the raw sentiment to function as the sole visual event, demanding that viewers sit with the discomfort and recognition such a statement provokes. The work operates in the charged space between vulnerability and unease. Obsession sits at the uncomfortable edge of devotion, and Stefanski refuses to soften or contextualize it. There is no irony here, no protective distance—just the phrase in its unadorned state, forcing an encounter with feelings often left unspoken or quickly qualified. The scale amplifies this effect, transforming private admission into public monument. Within Stefanski's broader practice, the piece continues his investigation of text as emotional residue—words that linger after conversations end, phrases that repeat in the mind, declarations that define relationships and their complications. His canvases function as repositories for these verbal artifacts, preserving the psychological charge embedded in everyday language. The medium of paint lends permanence to what might otherwise be fleeting speech, fixing transient feeling into lasting form. "I'm Obsessed With You" exemplifies the artist's ability to locate profound emotional complexity within simple declarations, making the familiar feel newly urgent. For inquiries regarding acquisition, please contact Guy Hepner gallery directly.


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.