Stephen Talasnik was born in Philadelphia where he developed his early interest in engineering and architecture. He was intrigued with the exposed infrastructure of bridges, sports stadiums, transportation systems, the architecture of amusements, and transmission towers. Attracted to the aesthetics of the inventor, his early efforts in drawing were inspired by visionary architecture. A visit to the 1964 Worlds Fair in NYC presented him with an opportunity to see models of future cities triggering a lifelong obsession with "fantastic" design. His early stylistic mentor was Frank Lloyd Wright whose drawings he meticulously copied as part of the process of learning craft.
Talasnik studied art and design at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and the Tyler School of Art. At RISD, he was introduced to photographers Aaron Siskind and Harry Callahan whose lectures on the nature of the black and white image would have a lasting impact on his own studio investigation of drawing. Later, as a graduate student at Tyler's Rome campus, Talasnik lived within an environment of antiquities studying the work of Leonardo, Michelangelo, Brunelleschi, Piranesi, and the early 20th Century Italian Futurists.
In 1987, he moved to Tokyo to teach drawing and design at the Temple University Japan. For the next three years he studied contemporary Japanese Architecture and Design. Upon completion of his time in Tokyo, he moved to New York City where he continues to live and work.
After exclusively pursuing the art of drawing, Talasnik started making sculpture in the year 2000. His ongoing work explores the language of intuitive engineering and architecture and is included in numerous international public collections such as the Albertina (Vienna), British Museum (London), Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam), Canadian Center for Architecture (Montreal), State Museum of Berlin (Germany) and the National Gallery of Art (Washington DC). He is represented by Marlborough Gallery.
