Terry Evan Steadham

Terry Evan Steadham

68, a fine artist with works in the permanent collection of the Indianapolis Museum of Art and other venues across the country, died April 23 in the city. A native of Indianapolis, Mr. Steadham graduated with a B.F.A. degree from the John Herron School of Art, now a part of Indiana University. After serving as an artist-in-residence at a Northern Indiana high school and lecturing at Herron, Indiana University, and Purdue University, he moved to New York City, where he lived, worked and exhibited for thirteen years. During his first few years in New York, he thrived as an illustrator, doing books covers for Random House Publishing, album covers for RCA Records, and editorial illustrations for such periodicals as Psychology Today and Sports Illustrated. His work was republished in several successive years of the Illustrators Annual and appeared in the New York Society of Illustrators' exhibition 200 Years of American Art. He gave up his illustration career to work full-time as a studio artist, specializing in paintings and drawings that grew out of late abstract expressionism, employing a language of subtle colors and geometric shapes composed in tension with each other. In New York, his work appeared at the A.I.R. Gallery, the Allen Stone Gallery, Craig Cornelius Gallery, Kwok Gallery, Pamela Adler Gallery, Public Image Gallery, Old P.S. 64, The Queens Museum of Art, and the Soho Center for Visual Art. Outside of New York, he also exhibited at Austin Peay University in Clarksville, TN; Davidson College in Davidson, NC; D.W. Gallery in Dallas, TX; Elmira College in Elmira, NY; the J.B. Speed Museum of Art in Louisville, KY; the Johnson/Whitney Gallery in New Orleans, LA; the Karr Fine Arts Center of the New York Institute of Technology in Old Westbury, Long Island, NY; Kay Garvey Gallery in Chicago, IL; and the Kit Basquin Gallery in Milwaukee, WI. His pieces are also included in private collections in California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Toronto, Canada. At the time of his death, he was represented locally by Jacksson Contemporary Art in Columbus, IN. As an amateur athlete, Mr. Steadham completed the Boston Marathon and the Baltimore Marathon, as well as the New York City Marathon a dozen years in a row. As an amateur astronomer, he was a member of the Indiana Astronomical Society, hand made some of his own telescope equipment and regularly attended "star parties" (several-day-long campouts for up to thousands of astronomers) in Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Nebraska, and Texas. On top of all these examples of his considerable talents, those who knew and loved him saw him as an inspiring, kind, gentle and thoughtful soul who will be fondly remembered and greatly missed. Mr. Steadham is survived by his daughter Ann Steadham-Ray and his granddaughter, Calisto, both of Colfax, CA; by his twin brother Jerry of Indianapolis and by three former wives. The family will schedule a service celebrating his life in the coming weeks. Memorial contributions in his name may be made to the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Arrangements made by Little and Sons Funeral Home.