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Robert Flynt (USA)
BIOGRAPHY
Robert Flynt’s work in photography and photographic-based installation has been widely exhibited both in the United States and abroad since the early 80’s. The work has been shown in traditional museum and gallery settings, in alternative spaces, as part of performance art and dance performances, and is featured in numerous publications.
In 1992 his work was included in the “New Photography” exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, where his work is now part of the permanent collection. It is also in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum, The International Center of Photography (NY), The L.A. County Museum, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, among many others. Other museums that have shown his work include the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia and the Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans, as well as numerous university galleries. His notable one-person exhibitions have been at Witkin Gallery, Wessel+O’Connor Gallery and ClampArt in New York, the Craig Krull Gallery in Santa Monica, the G. Gibson Gallery in Seattle, and the Gomez Gallery in Baltimore. He has been included in over 80 group exhibitions since 1980.
Flynt’s interest in collaborative projects have resulted in commissions from the Brooklyn Academy of Music with choreographer Bebe Miller in 1989, and the L.A. International Arts Festival with Ishmael Houston-Jones and Dennis Cooper in 1990. In 1994 he collaborated with writer Chris Packard for the installation piece and artist’s book Blind Trust, which premiered at Temple University in Philadelphia and traveled throughout the U.S. and Canada. He collaborated with Yoshiko Chuma on The Yellow Room, commissioned by the Daghdha Dance Company (Ireland) in 2003. In March of 2008 Body-Scan, a collaborative project with choreographers Benoit Lachambre and Su-Feh Lee premiered in Brest, France, touring internationally in 2009. In March 2009 he collaborated with Pavel Zustiak/Palissimo on Weddings and Beheadings, premiering in New York at the Ailey Center Theater.
Along with numerous visiting artist and residency engagements throughout the U.S., Canada, and Europe , Flynt has received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, Light Work, the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, Art Matters, the Peter S. Reed Foundation, and most recently a Bogliasco Foundation residency in Italy. His 1996 monograph, Compound Fracture (Twin Palms Publishers) received one of the Best Books of the Year Awards from the American Institute of Graphic Arts. He has served on the faculty of the School of Visual Arts in New York, and divides his time between New York, the Hudson Valley and Arizona.
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
We look to (and at) images to find information: practical, aesthetic, erotic, and points between or overlapping. We are often seduced; we believe the photograph’s illusory diorama of a point in time, the diagram or chart’s authoritative organization of fact. My primary concern is to re-imagine the human body - in relation to its own assumed/perceived structure, as well as to “others” (other bodies, spaces, systems). In my montage based work, each image is the intersection of two layers: one a figure photographed with limited control (underwater or in a pitch dark studio), the other a found photograph or textbook illustration. In combining two often contradictory vocabularies, I am hoping to subvert their ostensible subject while harnessing their respective power(s). The goal is a meaning beyond or between the boundaries of their individual language: the authority of the scientific illustration, the inscribed ideals of the classical art reference, the sentimentality or “family values” of the vernacular found photograph. Juxtaposed to the metaphoric submerged figure, a jangling dialog is created that ranges from the reinforcing to the ridiculous. More recent work separates these layers out into multiple panel sequences, the complicating component of oblique narrative replaces that of the ambiguous blending of montage. In either (and any) case: can we finally see more than we know?
More information about this artist:
Robert Flynt's website
Robert Flynt at CLAMPART
Robert Flynt at Carrie Haddad Gallery
Current exhibition: "AFTERGLOW" at Carrie Haddad gallery
Robert Flynt’s work in photography and photographic-based installation has been widely exhibited both in the United States and abroad since the early 80’s. The work has been shown in traditional museum and gallery settings, in alternative spaces, as part of performance art and dance performances, and is featured in numerous publications.
In 1992 his work was included in the “New Photography” exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, where his work is now part of the permanent collection. It is also in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum, The International Center of Photography (NY), The L.A. County Museum, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, among many others. Other museums that have shown his work include the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia and the Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans, as well as numerous university galleries. His notable one-person exhibitions have been at Witkin Gallery, Wessel+O’Connor Gallery and ClampArt in New York, the Craig Krull Gallery in Santa Monica, the G. Gibson Gallery in Seattle, and the Gomez Gallery in Baltimore. He has been included in over 80 group exhibitions since 1980.
Flynt’s interest in collaborative projects have resulted in commissions from the Brooklyn Academy of Music with choreographer Bebe Miller in 1989, and the L.A. International Arts Festival with Ishmael Houston-Jones and Dennis Cooper in 1990. In 1994 he collaborated with writer Chris Packard for the installation piece and artist’s book Blind Trust, which premiered at Temple University in Philadelphia and traveled throughout the U.S. and Canada. He collaborated with Yoshiko Chuma on The Yellow Room, commissioned by the Daghdha Dance Company (Ireland) in 2003. In March of 2008 Body-Scan, a collaborative project with choreographers Benoit Lachambre and Su-Feh Lee premiered in Brest, France, touring internationally in 2009. In March 2009 he collaborated with Pavel Zustiak/Palissimo on Weddings and Beheadings, premiering in New York at the Ailey Center Theater.
Along with numerous visiting artist and residency engagements throughout the U.S., Canada, and Europe , Flynt has received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, Light Work, the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, Art Matters, the Peter S. Reed Foundation, and most recently a Bogliasco Foundation residency in Italy. His 1996 monograph, Compound Fracture (Twin Palms Publishers) received one of the Best Books of the Year Awards from the American Institute of Graphic Arts. He has served on the faculty of the School of Visual Arts in New York, and divides his time between New York, the Hudson Valley and Arizona.
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
We look to (and at) images to find information: practical, aesthetic, erotic, and points between or overlapping. We are often seduced; we believe the photograph’s illusory diorama of a point in time, the diagram or chart’s authoritative organization of fact. My primary concern is to re-imagine the human body - in relation to its own assumed/perceived structure, as well as to “others” (other bodies, spaces, systems). In my montage based work, each image is the intersection of two layers: one a figure photographed with limited control (underwater or in a pitch dark studio), the other a found photograph or textbook illustration. In combining two often contradictory vocabularies, I am hoping to subvert their ostensible subject while harnessing their respective power(s). The goal is a meaning beyond or between the boundaries of their individual language: the authority of the scientific illustration, the inscribed ideals of the classical art reference, the sentimentality or “family values” of the vernacular found photograph. Juxtaposed to the metaphoric submerged figure, a jangling dialog is created that ranges from the reinforcing to the ridiculous. More recent work separates these layers out into multiple panel sequences, the complicating component of oblique narrative replaces that of the ambiguous blending of montage. In either (and any) case: can we finally see more than we know?
More information about this artist:
Robert Flynt's website
Robert Flynt at CLAMPART
Robert Flynt at Carrie Haddad Gallery
Current exhibition: "AFTERGLOW" at Carrie Haddad gallery
