Draft:Curtis Steiner

Curtis James Steiner (born June 2, 1964 in Aberdeen, Washington) is an American artist and gallery owner. Steiner operated the decorative arts gallery Souvenir, later renamed Curtis Steiner Gallery, in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle, Washington from 1999 to 2020. Steiner’s work has been shown at the Seattle Art Museum, studio e, and is featured at the Fran’s Chocolates store and the law offices of Davis Wright Tremaine. Steiner is currently represented by Traver Art Gallery.

Steiner was born in Aberdeen, Washington and raised in Mountlake Terrace, Washington. Steiner described his childhood environment as lacking beauty and says that is what motivated him to pursue a life of aestheticism and career as an artist. Steiner is self-taught and has no formal art training.

Steiner began his career making handmade greeting cards utilizing reproduced versions of his paintings. Steiner’s company was the largest handmade greeting card company in the United States at one time, selling 60,000 cards annually. Steiner opened Souvenir primarily as a space to make and sell his greeting cards but in addition he began making and selling jewelry, selling antique objects and showing other artists work. Steiner expanded his gallery and renamed it Curtis Steiner Gallery in 2011. Steiner closed his gallery in July of 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Steiner produced an installation at the Seattle Art Museum with artist Galen Lowe and the Seattle Art Museum displayed Steiner’s "1,000 Blocks," an interactive work, for many years. In November 2010, Steiner's solo show of calligraphic works titled "Insects & Alphabets" was featured at Souvenir. Steiner produced an exhibit called "Tobey in Blue" at studio e gallery in January 2016. Steiner’s commissioned work includes a portrait of Fran's Chocolates founder's granddaughter which was produced using more than 4,000 pieces of chocolate. This photographed mosaic is featured in the Fran's downtown storefront. Steiner produced a work using bugle beads, plexiglass and over 30,000 sequins for the law offices of Davis Wright Tremaine. Steiner produced a necklace made of 100 hand painted key tags for The Jewelry Library's “Tag Your it” exhibit in 2020 titled “The Garden of Time.”  A second piece commissioned from the show, titled “Autumn,” is in the collection of the Smithsonian Institute’s Renwick Gallery. In 2018 Steiner worked with friend and restaurateur Renee Erickson’s Sea Creatures company to curate the interior of Deep Dive, a bar in the Amazon Spheres. Deep Dive was named as one of the 2024 Top 50 Most Beautiful Bars in People Magazine.

In September 2022, Steiner had an exhibition of 40 watercolor paintings at Traver Gallery. The paintings were freehand watercolors in custom antique velvet lined frames. His second exhibit of watercolor paintings, Gathering, was shown in 2024,  Gathering consisted of over 30 freehand watercolor paintings framed in unique antique frames.

Steiner’s garden has been featured in multiple publications and Steiner says the natural world is subconsciously reflected in his abstract work.