Steven Mastroianni is a Cleveland-based artist, photographer, educator, curator, and musician. His current body of work straddles the worlds of photography, drawing, and printmaking, incorporating camera-less photographic processes and mixed media. In this exhibition, Mastroianni explores surreal and abstract forms through photogenic images and drawings. Evocative of watery depths, imaginary heavens, and mysterious maps, these “diagrams” create an immersive world examining the intersection of symbols, surrealism, and abstraction. Like dreams, these images seem familiar but weird; letters that don’t exist, mechanical forms floating in space, math problems that don’t add up, and patterns that follow their own logic.

About his artistic process, Mastroianni remarks,

“One of the earliest and most familiar photogenic processes was the use of cyanotype to make blueprints, hence the name, and so I think about how my work resembles those intricate mechanical drawings. But instead of designs for buildings or machines, I’m laying out diagrams for fictional locations and strange mechanisms. In addition to cyanotype, I utilize silver gelatin camera less prints and drawing hybrids to create these photograms.”

Mastroianni has exhibited in dozens of group and solo shows, most recently a solo exhibition at the Massillon Museum, and an artist residency at Akron Soul Train. His work is included in the permanent collections of University Hospitals, Progressive Insurance, Cleveland Clinic, and many private collections. In his professional career, he ran a commercial photographic studio for over 30 years and operated Mastroianni Arts, a Cleveland area gallery which showcased area artists and arts events between 2008-2018. Mastroianni is also a college professor, teaching photography at Cuyahoga Community College.