Exhibition: Kate Spencer Stewart 2025

Bureau is pleased to present Couplet, Kate Spencer Stewart’s second solo exhibition with the gallery. Its title references the poetic form in which two lines with the same meter complete one another, a structure echoed throughout the show in a mirrored composition: six large-scale atmospheric abstractions above and six intimate flower paintings below. Within a consistent square format, the paintings converse through subtle formal affinities and abrupt deviations in fugue-like correspondences. Painting, for Stewart, is an act of surrender and devotion: each work develops through cycles of repeated actions and careful observation, negotiated within a prolonged engagement of escalating material interactions.

Her paintings are made up of traditional pigments in oil, layered over underpaintings either as pentimento or fields of near-obliteration. Conceived as pairs in different studios, first during summer in upstate New York and later upon returning to Los Angeles, her works trace a process of divergence, carrying echoes of their counterparts while developing their own attributes. In the large paintings, vertical and horizontal gestures recur across this suite, along with a compositional acknowledgement of the canvas’s edge. Ritual (all works 2025) rises sharply in strokes of red and green that seep into a dappled, muted pink, while Verily Verily builds a dense vermillion field amongst looping figure-eights of green. Morning Star evokes a vast sky of Venusian clouds that coalesce and concentrate near the bottom, distorting under their own gravity. Sovereign glows purple from glazes of lapis lazuli, bright reds and deep violets, unifying a still and contemplative plane within its surface.

Downstairs, a collection of small flower paintings acts as a counterpoint to the abstract works above. Each presents a proliferation of generic flower forms, the motif composed of four simply drawn petals which rotate and brush up against each other. The shapes recall Gothic quatrefoils or crosses, evoking historical and symbolic precedents while remaining provisional and brutally blunt. Blooms compress and spread across the surfaces in patterns that reaffirm their inherent flatness, signaling an agnostic attitude towards figurative portrayal. In the studio they develop alongside the other works as meditations on accuracy and color, serving as a pressure valve against the intensity of abstraction. Each work is singular yet contributes to an evolving web of poetics. 

Kate Spencer Stewart (b. 1984 Phoenix, AZ) lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. Stewart received her BFA from Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles, CA (2006), and MFA from University of California, Los Angeles, CA (2017). Solo and two-person exhibitions include Nuit, Kate Spencer Stewart & Odilon Redon, Emalin, London, United Kingdom (2025); AIR FORCE, Paul Soto, Los Angeles, CA (2025); Disintegration Suite, Paul Soto, New York, NY (2023); Diurne, Emalin, London, England (2023); Youth, with Chadwick Rantanen, Hakuna Matata, Los Angeles, CA (2023); Convention, Bureau, New York, NY (2022). Recent group exhibitions include land marks, Pace, Los Angeles, CA (2025); Taking Care, Hannah Hoffman, Los Angeles, CA (2025); Revival, Francesca Minini, Milan, Italy (2025).