The body of work in Steven Cabral’s Stars between Spaces series begins with a simple action: pouring color onto raw canvas. Working primarily in acrylic, with crayon, marker, and other media, he pours, stains, sands, erases, adds, layers, scrapes, and negotiates the surface until it hovers on the verge of becoming something. Edges and cracks appear, opening into new visual cues of painterly space. These fractures and residues feel to him like hidden worlds—stars between spaces waiting to be discovered.

Cabral's abstract practice is one of spatial and dreamlike contemplation manifested on a surface. He is always looking for a sense of “place” or “space” within the painting, even if that place is ambiguous. Organic forms meet geometric structures; stains and irregular marks collide with shapes. The geometry, while not always obvious, offers a kind of scaffolding—an underlying order that holds the more fluid gestures in tension. Each painting becomes a negotiation between freedom and structure, accident and intention.

Layering is central to Cabral’s process, and it conveys a sense of memory and residue. Each pour, each mark, leaves a trace behind, like each of our interactions with the world around us—a residue of light from previous decisions. Even when a layer is mostly obscured, an echo remains that shapes what comes after. The paintings hold these histories in their surfaces. In this way, they mirror how we experience the world: nothing is ever entirely erased; a small residue remains, waiting to be recalled to active memory.

Cabral does not consider his interpretations final or fixed. His questions for the viewer are simple: What do you see? What do you sense? What emerges for you as you stay with the work? The paintings invite inspection, introspection, and slowing down, leaving room for each viewer’s own experiences and subjective recall. He hopes that, as you wander through these layered spaces, you might feel both the weight of complexity and the possibility of quiet within them.

Artist Bio

Steven Cabral (b. 1978, Cambridge, MA) is a Boston-based painter whose work has been exhibited at Mtn Space Gallery, Kingston Gallery, and The Painting Center. He received his BFA from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and his MFA from Lesley University College of Art and Design. Cabral serves on the Executive Committee at The Painting Center, where he is Secretary, and previously served on the Boston Center for the Arts Advisory Council (2024–2025). His practice extends into public dialogue and curation through artist panels and exhibitions at venues such as Lesley University’s Vandernoot Gallery, Concord Art, and The Painting Center. His work has been supported by residencies and grants, including Millay Arts, Vermont Studio Center, Visual Arts Grants from the Somerville Arts Council, and Cultural Sector Recovery Grants for Individuals from Mass Cultural Council.
He lives and works in Somerville, MA