Jody Zellen

Jody Zellen
Nationality American
Education Wesleyan University;California Institute of the Arts; New York University
Known for Painting, Digital Art, Video, Drawing
Website
www.jodyzellen.com

Jody Zellen (born 1961, Boston, Massachusetts) is a Los Angeles based artist that has a practice that involves digital art, painting, video art and drawing. Zellen has gained acclaim for her interactive installations, public art, curated exhibitions and art criticism (250 articles since 1999). She employs media-generated representations as raw material for aesthetic and social investigations that combine text and image.[1] A recognized pioneer in the field of digital art, Zellen's artistic practice ranges from mobile apps (six to date), net art and digital animation to drawing, painting, photography and artists' books. Her fourth curated exhibition "Poetic Codings" was the nation's first touring exhibition of artists' apps.

Education and career

Zellen earned a BA from Wesleyan University (1983), MFA from California Institute of the Arts (1989), and an MPS from New York University's Interactive Telecommunications Program (2009). A one-time member of Group Material, her work was included in "MASS," Group Material's exhibition that traveled to eight venues, including the New Museum in 1986.

Zellen has been the recipient of nine competitive grants, such as the Center for Cultural Innovation's 2011 Investing in Artists Grants Program and a 2011 City of Santa Monica artist's fellowship. She also received a 2012 mid-career artist's fellowship from the California Community Foundation [2] and a 2004 COLA Individual Artist Grant from the City of Los Angeles.

Zellen has been awarded numerous residencies in Barcelona and Rotterdam, as well as at Pace University, Banff Centre for the Arts and Art/OMI.

Zellen has held teaching positions at University of Southern California (2014–2015), California State University-Fullerton (2012), School of the Museum of Fine Arts- Boston (2008–2010), CSU- Los Angeles (2007), Cal Poly-Pomona (2002–2005), UCLA (1998–2002), California Institute of the Arts (2000–2001) and Santa Monica College (2000).

Digital arts

In 2001, Zellen was awarded Java Artist of the Year and has since been commissioned to produce new works for the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art (2014, Charleston, South Carolina),[3] Disseny Hub Museum (2011, Barcelona) and the Pace University Digital Gallery (2005, NYC).[4] She has been commissioned to create online works for Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Austin Peay State University (Clarkson, Tennessee), turbulence.org, and artport.whitney.org.[5]

Since 1997, Zellen's work has been featured during nearly 200 media and web-art conferences around the globe, including notable digital festivals: SIGGRAPH (2006, 2004, 2001, 1999), the 25th São Paulo Bienal (2002), WEB Biennials in Istanbul (2013, 2011, 2010, 2007, 2005, 2003), ISEA (2012, 2006 and 2000), File RIO (2008, 2007, 2006 and 2004) and Currents-the Santa Fe International Media Festival (2015, 2014 and 2012).

Composed of four artists' digital installations and mobile apps produced by eight artists (including John Baldessari), "Poetic Codings," a touring exhibition Zellen curated, opened at Los Angeles' Fellows of Contemporary Art Exhibition Space (2013), traveled to Boston's Cyberarts Gallery (2013) and finished at the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art (2014).

Zellen's art apps for iPad include: Time Jitters (2014), Episodic[6] (2013), 4 Square (2012), Art Swipe[7] (2012), Urban Rhthms [8] (2011) and Spine Sonnet[9] (2011).

Solo exhibitions

Commenting on Zellen's process of photo-copying collaged texts, Susan Kandel remarked that "there is something perverse in lingering over obsolete photochemical techniques in this era of electronic ubiquity. And yet there is a certain logic as Zellen's imagery converges on the antique and the anachronistic...it is actually quite nostalgic, whether by accident or design."[10]

Zellen has had nearly forty solo exhibitions in commercial galleries, museums, university galleries and artist-run spaces, such as Carl Solway Gallery (2014), Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art (2014), Post (2012, 1998, 1997), Fringe Exhibitions (2008),[11] Printed Matter (2007), Paul Kopeikin (2007), Pace University Digital Gallery (2005), Laguna Art Museum (2004),[12] Susanne Vielmetter Projects (2002),[13] Robert V. Fullerton Museum (2001), Montgomery Gallery-Pomona College (2000), Atlanta Center for Contemporary Art (1999), SF Camerawork (1995), Center for Contemporary Photography-Melbourne (1995) and Dorothy Goldeen Gallery (1993).[14]

Her work has been included in group exhibitions at the San Jose Institute for Contemporary Art (2014), Ben Maltz Gallery, Otis College of Art and Design (2013), Mass MOCA (2011), Krannert Art Museum (2008), Santa Monica Museum of Art (2006),[15] Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery (2004), Artists Space (2002), University of California Riverside- California Museum of Photography (2002), Exit Art (2002), Robert V. Fullerton Museum (2001), Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2000, 1995), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2000) and Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (1989).

Public art

Zellen has received public art commissions from the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs and Los Angeles MTA. These projects include banners for the Los Angeles Metro's Silver Line (2014), custom bike racks for the City of Santa Monica (2014), as well as posters (2003) and fences (1994–1997) for MTA stations and a tile installation in the Emergency Drop-Off entrance to the UCLA Santa Monica Hospital.

Artist's books

Zellen's artists' books include: If (2013), The View (2011), Without a Trace (2010), Imagine (2008), Of a Lost Utopia (2007), Reliable (2007), Untitled (2006), To (2004), The Blackest Spot[16] (2002), City Views (2001), Gridded Paths (2000), Standing Still: Still Standing (2000), Pinspot #2 (1998), Blur (1997) and Beneath the Ruins (1996).

Selected bibliography

External links

References

  1. ↑ Matt Bua and Maximilian Goldfarb.Visionary Drawing of Buildings. London. Laurence King Publishing. 2012
  2. ↑ "Jody Zellen | California Community Foundation". my.calfund.org. Retrieved 2015-02-09.
  3. ↑ "Jody Zellen: Above the Fold – The Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art". halsey.cofc.edu. Retrieved 2015-02-09.
  4. ↑ "Pace Digital Gallery". csis.pace.edu. Retrieved 2015-02-09.
  5. ↑ "Whitney Artport: Gate Pages". artport.whitney.org. Retrieved 2015-02-09.
  6. ↑ "twenty-four hours archive: Computers and Lit #2: Spine Sonnets, Apps, and Beyond with Jody Zellen". twentyfourhourszine.blogspot.be. Retrieved 2015-02-09.
  7. ↑ "In Wonderland Inspires Artist App | Unframed". unframed.lacma.org. Retrieved 2015-02-09.
  8. ↑ "Rhizome | Art In Your Pocket 3: Sensor Driven iPad and iPhone Art Apps". rhizome.org. Retrieved 2015-02-09.
  9. ↑ "Spine Sonnet: Jody Zellen on Steve Wolfe | Unframed". unframed.lacma.org. Retrieved 2015-02-09.
  10. ↑ Susan Kandel."Art Review." Los Angeles Times. April 4, 1996.
  11. ↑ "FRINGE EXHBITIONS". fringexhibitions.com. Retrieved 2015-02-09.
  12. ↑ "Jody Zellen USA | Jody Zellen En mi obra fuerzo los límites de varios medios". Retrieved 2015-02-09.
  13. ↑ "Jody Zellen; Monique van Genderen; C.O.L.A. — Art Talk — KCRW". kcrw.com. Retrieved 2015-02-09.
  14. ↑ Peter Weibel and Timothy Druckery.Net Condition: Art and Global Media. MIT Press. 2001. p. 316
  15. ↑ Joshua Dector.Dark Places. Santa Monica Museum of Art. 2006.
  16. ↑ "Sensation, and all the modalites of perception fold into and out of each other. Attention most twisted". 23 April 2013. Retrieved 2015-02-09.