Steve Roden
Fine Arts - 1986
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. ...
Artist Steve Roden's ('86) practice defies definition. In the U.S., he is known as a painter, but he morphs into
a sound artist in Europe. "I like to think of myself as just a guy who makes stuff
in my garage," says Roden, whose work incorporates his myriad interests-from drawings
made using stencils manufactured by Mattel to video works featuring Martha Graham's
ephemera.
At Otis, Roden's work moved from violent, figurative works to abstraction while
working with visual artist Roy Dowell. The late artist Mike Kelley, an older punk
rocker, was also in Roden's orbit. The two continued to work together as Roden pursued
graduate studies. Where others might have stifled Roden's evolving style, Otis provided
an environment that encouraged exploration. He cites his final drawing class project
made with good friend and late conceptual artist Ray Navarro as an example. The duo
made a video filled with "as many offensive, ridiculous things we could possibly think
of." The pair earned A's. Perhaps Otis's most lasting influence is Roden's late-blooming
love for reading, which he found during a class with novelist Bernard Cooper. "As
a kid, I hated reading," says Roden, "Now, everything I do comes from reading."
Roden has performed his soundworks worldwide including Serpentine Gallery London,
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, DCA Dundee Scotland,
Redcat Los Angeles, Crawford Gallery Cork Ireland, as well as performance tours of
Brazil and Japan. Recent performances include John Cage's Cartridge Music with composer
Mark Trayle at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, and a tribute to Rolf Julius at
the Hamburger Banhof Berlin. Since 1993, Roden has released numerous CDs under his
own name as well as under the moniker "in be tween noise" on various record labels
internationally. In July 2012, he performed a sound piece in the Rothko Chapel in
collaboration with the Menil Collection, Texas.
Roden's works are in the permanent collection of LACMA; MCA San Diego; MOCA, and
National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, Greece.
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