Stephen Paul Day

Stephen Paul Day was born in Ames, Iowa in 1954, after which he moved to Louisiana where his father took on a position teaching inorganic chemistry at a university in Baton Rouge. In 1971 Stephen went to Vienna, Austria during his high school sophomore year, instilling in him an ability to connect significant quality with historical relevance.

Day never doubted his artistic calling. A committed modern romantic and disillusioned with his then provincial exposure to art, he began his studies in lithography at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, France. Though somewhat tainted by youthful vision, Day longed for an existential experience and flourished in France. There he found work in the atelier of Bernard Allain, master craftsman in architectural glass and famous for many sites including the painted windows at St. Paul de Vence for Henri Matisse.

Stephen left Paris in 1982 to complete an MFA in sculptural glass at Louisiana State University. He graduated with honors and in 1985 was awarded a residency at the Experimental Glass Workshop in New York City. There he developed a signature technique of French glass painting coupled with glass casting— a technique which expressed his internal belief that idea and narrative are equally important partners in the creation of his work. His exhibitions, Kryptonite Lies and Robber Barons, cemented his position as an artist in New York City where he remained for the next six years.

In the following years, Day traveled the world and lived in Paris and New York. He participated in numerous lectures, exhibitions, and residencies, including an emerging artist award from the Pilchuck School of Glass, where he also taught for five years and worked with the German glass artist Erwin Eisch.

In 1988 he was invited to help develop a summer academy in Frauenau, Germany, the brainchild of Erwin Eisch. He remains an instructor and advisor of the school to the present. In 1990 he met his wife Sibylle Peretti and created the collaborative team, Club S+S. Together, their work has taken them around the world as resident artists, and they have had exhibitions in Japan, France, Germany, the United States, and Mexico. These journeys included two residencies at Wheaton Arts, Arts/Industry, and at the Freies Museum in Berlin. Their museum exhibitions include Remix at the Speed Museum, 1822 at the CAC in New Orleans, and Spielplatz at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, Wisconsin.

Day now lives and works in both New Orleans and Berlin, Germany. He is an avid seeker of the curious and wonderful, deriving pleasure by creating works deeply motivated by a sense of connection to history and traditional skills.