Join us for two free special events in the Cornish Main Gallery on September 8, in support of the current exhibition, Game Theory (opens September 7). Artist Steve Roden will talk about his work at noon, followed by an improvisational performance at 7 pm.
Steve is a visual and sound artist from Los Angeles whose work includes painting, drawing, sculpture, film/video, sound installation, and performance.
From his website:
“Roden’s working process uses various forms of specific notation (words, musical scores, maps, etc.) and translates them through self invented systems into scores; which then influence the process of painting, drawing, sculpture, and sound composition. These scores, rigid in terms of their parameters and rules, are also full of holes for intuitive decisions and left turns. The inspirational source material becomes a kind of formal skeleton that the abstract finished works are built upon.
“In the visual works, translations of information such as text and maps, become rules and systems for generating visual actions such as color choices, number of elements, and image building. In the sound works, singular source materials such as objects, architectural spaces, and field recordings, are abstracted through humble electronic processes to create new audio spaces, or ‘possible landscapes’. The sound works present themselves with an aesthetic Roden describes as “lower case’’ - sound concerned with subtlety and the quiet activity of listening.
“Roden has performed his soundworks at various arts spaces and experimental music festivals worldwide including the serpentine gallery London, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, the DCA Dundee Scotland, Redcat Theater Los Angeles, as well as performance tours of Brazil and Japan.
“Recent site specific sound works have included MOCA at the Pacific Design Center for a series of paintings by Mark Rothko, the Henry Art Gallery’s James Turrell Skyspace, a live collaboration with Stephen Vitiello in a room of 50 aluminum sculpture by Donald Judd at Chinati, and a sound/sculpture/drawing installation for Thomas U. Walter’s 1848 building at Girard College Philadelphia, and a permanent public art work at Hayvenhurst park, in west Hollywood California. Roden has released over 20 CDs of audio works on labels worldwide.
“Roden received an MFA from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA in 1989, and a BFA from Otis Parsons in Los Angeles in 1986. He has taught at numerous institutions including: Art Center College of Design, Pasadena; Otis College of Art Los Angeles, Claremont graduate school Pomona; UC Santa Barbara; UCLA Los Angeles. He has lectured on his work and done studio visits at numerous universities including: Harvard University, Boston; Columbia College, NY; UIC, Chicago; USC Los Angeles; Cal Arts, Los Angeles; San Francisco Art Institute; and others.”
Image: proximities no. 3, 2010, acrylic and oil on linen, 22 x 20 inches, Courtesy of the artist and Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects.
