Dr. Version

Artist Statement

I work with video sources to create non-static digital artworks influenced by painting traditions—abstraction, surrealism, biomorphism, and color field. My digital approach carries a painterly attention to mark, surface, texture, and composition. I want the work to evoke a sense of materiality, pushing the screen toward something that feels physical and analog. The looping GIF is an ideal medium—always in motion, eternal.

I often incorporate sound to extend the idea of perpetual time and motion. What if a piece emitted sound, or sound drove its movement? The relationship between image and motion shifts.

My work reflects an interest in time, space, and transformation—how landscapes, architecture, and geology change across long spans, how surfaces wear and weather and decay. I aim to heighten perception, drawing attention details both mundane and spectacular.

Dr. Version (Stephen Hermann) is a visual artist, music producer, and sound designer whose work bridges moving image, audio composition, and digital media. His practice emerged from graduate studies in studio arts at the University of Minnesota, where an early focus on painting developed alongside an obsession with music production and sound. As a founding member of Sukpatch, he signed a Sony Music publishing deal, a record contract with the Beastie Boys’ Grand Royal label, and most recently R+R Digital.

In the late 90s, Hermann moved to NYC, where his focus shifted fully toward music production and sound design. There he established Explosion Robinson, producing custom music, sonic branding, and audio post‑production for advertising and media.

Visual art remained a continuous thread throughout, eventually surfacing as Dr. Version—a hybrid practice where motion, color, and often sound converge in digital form. His recent works translate the sensibilities of painting into time-based media, generating perceptual spaces that oscillate between the abstract and the surreal.

Education

BFA - University of Colorado, Boulder, CO

MFA- University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN

Exhibitions

2025 Unfold Gallery - Objkt Pop Up / NY, NY

2026 RGBMTL Group Show / Montreal, Quebec

Contact via email