Stephen F. Bornstein
Industrial Designer, Artist, Sculptor, Illustrator

Stephen Bornstein grew up in New York City and lived the last 30 years in Miami before moving recently to Central Texas. He studied art at The School of Visual Arts in NYC and is a graduate of Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. Mr Bornstein has had his own Industrial design firm for 45 years working for various multinational firms throughout North and South America. His commercial illustrations have also appeared in many national magazines. The lost wax sculptures displayed in this exhibit are artworks created over the last decade.
The Artist strives to evoke in his sculptures the masterpieces that we have inherited from antiquity. Bornstein tries to emulate the craftsmanship of ancient artisans, whose skills were treasured by their powerful patrons. Pharaohs, emperors, kings and priests. who used art to adorn their palaces, their bodies, and their tombs, such as figurines made from precious materials and possessing magical powers. Utilizing the same themes, techniques, and elements, Bornstein's pieces evoke other eras.
In particular, it brings back to life a period in which mysticism and spirituality were both associated with art. In this period gods and mortals became thematic elements. Art from this era, crafted in gold, silver, bronze and precious gems was designed to last millennia.
Beginning as a starting point, with some of humankind's most revered antiquities, Bornstein interpreted several historic masterpieces (both from 2-D and 3-D originals) to create works that a pharaoh would have displayed in his own residence or used as personal adornment.
Analyzing the commonality of human symbolism and their ancestry, Bornstein uncovered with amazement a continuity of all religious symbolism from the ancient to the modern. Through deduction, Bornstein recognizes a psychological thread running through much of humankind's artistic endeavors, with which he creates new and original images evoking the ancient past as well as those rooted in his own life's experiences
During the mid-1990's, Bornstein embarked on a multi-year effort to focus on reinterpreting historic pieces found in leading museums around the world. This journey took him through both time and space to sculpt a series that creates an intrinsically woven time-line of the entire modern historic period.
In an effort to integrate nature's inherent creativity as well as the artist's, Bornstein harmoniously combines his pieces with agates and highly polished crystal surfaces. Adding diamonds into the figurine's eyes imparts a life-like quality to the work. By harnessing the power of electro-magnetism, Bornstein literally turns bronze castings into gold and platinum. The fusion that he creates produces bonds between metals that will last as long as the Earth itself.
As a new citizen of Texas, Bornstein has become strongly influenced by regional images for his newest work. A chance encounter with a rattlesnake lead him to create a series of sculptures combining the reality of nature and mythical Aztec motifs.
Bornstein while living in Austin has been inspired to recreate the historic longhorn steer as both a revered local deity and the Hebrew's legendary golden calf.
Bornstein was a a close friend of "the beat Poet" Allen Ginsberg and recently completed a series of portraits on display here from photos he took of the poet over 40 years.