Steve DiBenedetto's 'Spiral Architect' Exhibition Explores Visionary States Through Paint

Steve DiBenedetto's exhibition 'Spiral Architect' at Derek Eller Gallery features 17 paintings that blend figuration and abstraction to explore connections between the body and visionary states. The show includes four large-scale works measuring 7.3 by 6.2 feet or larger, alongside 13 smaller pieces dated from 2022 to 2026. DiBenedetto's technique involves adding, scraping, and reworking paint to create surfaces with encrusted areas, smeared passages, drips, and crisply defined forms. His large paintings contain disembodied body parts recalling humans, octopi, cellular forms, and machines, suggesting a brain-body relationship in turbulent reformation. Works like 'The Octopus Paradox' (2025–26) present non-human life forms connected by tubular structures to Rube Goldberg-esque concoctions, creating a world of science fiction and laboratory experiments. Smaller paintings such as 'Interstellar Antifreeze' and 'Ok, I lied' (2023) reveal different surface treatments, from tarry black and pink compositions to thinly painted grounds with dotted patterns. DiBenedetto's approach differs from artists like Hilma af Klint and Forrest Bess by focusing on unlocking the viewer's own psychic unconsciousness rather than transmitting messages from higher powers. The exhibition continues through April 25 at Derek Eller Gallery's Tribeca location at 38 Walker Street, Manhattan.