New York, NY
Born 1957, Yonkers, New York
My sculptures use a wide variety of materials: wood, steel, glass, plexiglass, aluminum, brass, polyester resin, stuffed birds, record players, driftwood, toys and other assorted objects culled from the debris of American culture. I rarely proceed with a conscious strategy in mind. My influences are vast. While modern art, architecture, photography, film, dance and theater (the "high" arts) have all formed me as an artist, and I have incorporated painting, photography and video into my work, I have also always found inspiration from "lower" forms, in the odd heterogeneity that constitutes American life. Decor from Chinese restaurants, middle management offices and suburban homes, toys and miniatures, television soap operas, clothing and cast off technological objects have provided both the ideas and the materials for much of my art.
In terms of its structure, my work has often taken the form of a shadow box attached to the wall. Found and fabricated objects are lit and mechanized, creating various scenarios, both abstract and figurative. However, I deliberately leave the sides open to expose the mechanisms--a simple shift in the viewer's position reveals the inner workings behind the scenes. I have always been interested in what happens between the viewer and the art object; my work self-consciously plays in that arena, controlling the spectator's experience of the piece, but also offering him or her a glimpse of the machinery of that manipulation. In the 1980s, I used computers in the work, which allowed for longer and more random sequences, and thereby, more varied emotional effects. Later I returned to the more rudimentary movements of mechanics. I wanted my work to be more streamlined, less technological.
1980 Independent Study Program, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
1980 B.F.A., State University of New York at Purchase, New York
2000-- Chair of Visual Arts Division, Columbia University
1994-- Advisory Board Member, Momenta Art, Brooklyn, New York
1999 Luhring Augustine Gallery, New York
1997 University of the Arts, Philadelphia
1996 The Augustus Saint-Gaudens Memorial, Cornish, New Hampshire
1994 Jon Kesslers Asia, Kestner-Gesellschaft, Hannover, Germany; Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz, Austria Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg Puerto de Santander, Santander, Spain Luhring Augustine Gallery, New York
1992 Galerie Max Hetzler, Cologne Luhring Augustine Gallery, New York
1996 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship
1994 Saint-Gaudens Fellow
1985, 1983 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship
