Eric Stefanski: Reality Check
“Just Find the Core of What You’re Feeling”
Eric Stefanski is a Chicago–based contemporary artist best known for his text-based paintings that combine bold typography, deadpan humor, and social commentary. Drawing from advertising language, internet culture, and everyday speech, Stefanski distills complex emotional and political ideas into short, direct phrases that feel both intimate and confrontational. His works operate in the space between sincerity and satire, using simple materials and straightforward compositions to invite immediate engagement while sustaining deeper reflection.
Through statements that reference relationships, power, identity, economics, and desire, Stefanski examines how language shapes human behavior and collective belief systems. The apparent casualness of his messages belies their conceptual precision, as each phrase is carefully constructed to expose contradictions within contemporary life—particularly the tension between optimism and disillusionment. His practice reflects a broader inquiry into how communication functions in an age of constant information, branding, and performative expression.
Stefanski’s work has been widely exhibited and collected internationally, resonating with audiences for its accessibility, wit, and psychological insight. In an in-person installation, the physical presence of his paintings reinforces the immediacy of their messages, transforming familiar language into objects of contemplation and emphasizing the enduring power of words as both personal confession and cultural mirror.
