Email: t1tot2sm@gmail.com
Steve McDonnell is an American artist whose work addresses the complex relationship between industrial expansion and environmental degradation. Born and raised in Northeastern Pennsylvania—a region profoundly shaped by the legacy of coal mining and the contemporary fracking boom—McDonnell’s practice is rooted in a lifelong engagement with the land and its transformations.
After earning his B.A. with honors from the University of Vermont and completing graduate studies at Oberlin College in painting and art history, McDonnell pursued a dual path as both educator and artist. His work draws from traditions of Color Field painting, Land Art, Abstract Expressionism, and Conceptual Art, incorporating natural materials to explore environmental, social, and existential themes.
Through textured, material-driven installations, McDonnell captures the tensions between human industry and ecological resilience, offering poignant meditations on the irreversible changes wrought by extractive economies.
Featured Artwork
Title: DEATH SPIRAL
Medium: Frac sand and dirt, accompanied by a fact sheet on fracking’s environmental, social, and economic impacts
Dimensions: 48″ x 48″ (painting); 24″ x 18″ (fact sheet)
Year: 2024
Price: $7,500
Description:
DEATH SPIRAL juxtaposes the purity of earth materials with the destructive processes of industrial extraction. Constructed from silica sand sourced from Wisconsin and dirt collected in Vermont, the work highlights the environmental cost of hydraulic fracturing. The layered surfaces and tactile materials evoke both the geological beauty of natural processes and the violent distortions imposed by human intervention. Serving as both visual statement and educational tool, the piece underscores the paradox of energy dominance in an era of climate crisis.
Artistic Vision
McDonnell’s practice explores the environmental and existential consequences of resource extraction, using natural and industrial materials as both subject and medium. His work seeks to make visible the often overlooked damages inflicted on landscapes, while honoring the fragile resilience embedded within natural systems.
Through a fusion of conceptual rigor and material authenticity, McDonnell offers a visual critique of industrial practices and a call for greater environmental consciousness.
Exhibition Information
May 2025: Echoes of the Earth – Environmental Art
Curated by: Mekhi Deleon
Theme: Exploring the intersection of art and environmentalism, advocating for the planet through eco-art and other mediums.
Exhibition Dates: May 1 – May 8, 2025
Opening Reception: Thursday, May 1 | 6 PM – 8 PM
(for accessibility: full transcript below)
Stand before the surface. Feel its quiet density.
In Death Spiral, Steve McDonnell layers frac sand and Vermont dirt into a muted yet devastating meditation on extraction and erosion. At first, the tones feel grounded—earthy, almost serene. But this stillness carries violence beneath it.
Sourced from sites shaped by fracking and mining, the very materials betray the land they once nourished. Silica sand, dirt—transformed from life-giving soil into agents of collapse.
McDonnell’s surface is spare, but weighty. A field of aftermath.
Death Spiral does not shout. It presses inward, inviting you to reckon with what industry erases—and what scars are left behind. This is not a painting of what is lost. It is a painting with what is lost.