ABOUT

Steven Ribuffo is a multidisciplinary artist, photographer, and award-winning graphic designer based in Brooklyn, New York. With a career spanning nearly two decades in the digital space, he balances a professional life rooted in structure and control with a personal art practice that seeks to dismantle those very constraints.

By day, Steven is the Senior Graphic Designer at Skurnik Wines & Spirits, where he contributes to creative direction, brand development, and high-impact visual storytelling. His design work spans styles from Art Nouveau to the New York School, always guided by user-centered principles and a deep understanding of fine art fundamentals. Known for his collaborative mindset and creative leadership, he plays a key role in bringing strategic campaigns to life and supporting a culture of design excellence.

As an artist, Steven finds catharsis in abstraction. His personal work rejects the discipline of design in favor of raw, intuitive expression. Drawing heavily from 20th-century movements such as abstract expressionism, German expressionism, cubism, and futurism, he describes himself as a deconstructivist—relinquishing control to explore entropy through shape, texture, and composition. Though classically trained in printmaking, his current practice spans digital media, traditional collage, charcoal drawing, and painting. Across these mediums, he constructs layered, atmospheric portraits of abstracted landscapes and inner states, often blurring the line between physical and digital techniques.

Recently, Steven’s work has evolved to embrace a broader range of visual expression—oscillating between stark, grainy compositions and vibrant, color-driven abstractions. His early work was rooted in bold, expressive color, followed by a period of monochromatic exploration focused on ashen palettes reminiscent of shattered glass and urban decay. Now, color has returned to the forefront of his practice, used as a tool to heighten contrast, evoke emotion, and introduce layered meaning. Across this evolution, his core focus remains the development of a common visual language—one that moves fluidly between digital media, collage, drawing, and painting, while maintaining a consistent emotional and aesthetic signature. This shifting palette and multimodal approach reflect an ongoing investigation of entropy, memory, and reconstruction through texture, shape, and movement.

Up All Night, June 2025
On the Fringe NYC, 72 Warren St, Tribeca

F5, September 2024
On the Fringe NYC, 72 Warren St, Tribeca

In Layers, September 2023
On the Fringe NYC, 72 Warren St, Tribeca

Art Apple Inaugural Group Show, July 2019
Art Apple NYC, 1427 DeKalb Ave, Brooklyn

Split, October 2013
Danny Screams Gallery, 220 Leonard St, Brooklyn

Past EXHIBITIONS