Kurt Stell
b. 1958, Wichita, KS
Born in Wichita, Kansas, Kurt’s family moved to Los Angeles in 1964, where he grew up, drawing from an early age through school with attending community college art courses and galley display/design durning the last year of high school.
In 1982, Kurt traveled to Europe with a two month Interrail Pass, landing in Heidelberg, Germany, after the pass expired. He was hired by the American European Command as a graphic designer in order to remain in Germany legally. Mostly architectural graphite and watercolor works were sold at Kunsthandlung W. Welker Gmbh, which allowed the move to Florence, Italy in 1986, working full time as an artist with work being sold at Welker Gallery. 1989 saw a move to the Netherlands for a commercial design job that did not materialize. Returning to Heidelberg in 1991, Kurt joined the Marketing Office once again. Learning lithography from artist Luitgard Borlinghaus, 25 watercolor Illustrations for a children’s book by Raimund Manowita, and producing 14 City Posters of European cities for R&N Verlag Gmbh were among the highlights.
Upon returning to California in 1994, Kurt continued as a full time graphic designer while continuing with his own work. During the 2000’s, while in San Diego, California, Kurt shifted to figurative subjects producing a number of larger-than-life acrylic portrait “snap shots” of friends and family during exceptional moments. In 2019, Kurt and his husband moved to Palm Springs, California, continuing a lifetime exploring various mediums including acrylic, graphite & watercolor, mainly focusing on architectural subjects.
Kurt’s love for the order of architecture with its balances of form and function, the contrast of materials from stone, wood, glass, to steel, using various mediums of acrylic, graphite and watercolor to depict the structures that make a city to house us or supply a professional space.
Cropped views of mega-structures or others lost to history, exaggerating color, contrast and material are applied. Some work with graphite are driven by accuracy, while with acrylic, are more loose with an exaggeration of colors for a more fun and personal connection with the subject.
These boxes within boxes is where we spend most of our lives, either living in them, or looking at them from the outside. Since being an architect is the path not taken, the rendering of such is the direction Kurt is currently perusing.
Studied
1991 Luitgard Borlinghaus, Eichtersheim, Germany
1989 Maria Pufahl, Larchino, Italy
Publications
2024/25 Arts+Culture Magazine
2024 Architectural Digest
2024 Los Angeles Times
2021 Palm Springs Life Magazine
2014 sandiegomagazine.com
2009 Apartment Therapy, blog
1992 Manowita's Picture Book Stories
1984-86 R&N Verlag, Gmbh.
1985 Overseas Magazine
Selected Exhibitions
2025 Mad.Kat Gallery, Rancho Mirage, CA
2023 Rancho Mirage Festival of the Arts,
Rancho Mirage, CA
2023 Desert Open Studios, Palm Springs, CA
2021 Boomerang for Modern, Palm Springs, CA
2019 Cedar Street Studio, San Diego, CA
2014 The Blue Azul Collection, La Jolla, CA
2009 Boomerang for Modern, San Diego, CA
2008 Museum of the Living Artist, San Diego, CA
2005 Sun Café, San Diego, CA
2004 Uptown Partnership, San Diego, CA
2002 Contemporary Art, Orange County, CA
1995 New York West Gallery, Long Beach, CA
1988 Kunsthandlung Welkers,
Heidelberg, Germany
Collections
Jonathan & Wendy Segal, San Diego, CA
Mary Alllison, San Diego, CA
Bill & Lorraine Gallagher, Orange, CA
Sebastian Russell, Palm Springs, CA
Hallie Fei Smith, San Diego, CA
Pam Kissiah, Los Gatos, CA
John Ruggiero, Palm Springs, CA
Michelle Swift Chodos, Palm Springs, CA
Jodie Lesh, Palm Springs, CA
Berry Becker, Palm Springs, CA
Thomas Nelson, Palm Springs, CA
Denise Werner, Palm Springs, CA
Peter Janopaul, Rancho Santa Fe, CA
Del Prado Condominiums, San Diego, CA
Susan Camiel, San Diego, CA
Cami Christensen, Salt Lake City, UT
Marjory & Michael Bates, Pittsburg, PA
John Musser, Lititz, PA
Gail Bentivegna, Chicago, IL
Hollie Sellers, Birmingham, AL
POLARIODS