Rocco studied Fine Arts at The State University of New York College at Purchase, and advanced technologies as a graduate student, at the Center for Advanced Visual Study at M.I.T. His work as an artist has always employed mechanisms of sensation and perception, to open a larger social role. This was accomplished as a participant at the United Nations Conference on Communications Technology and Traditional Cultures where he presented a performance, A String Form for Binding Nations. Also in 1983, with his performance, Zaroff's Tale at The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, which focused on shamanic customs of the Inuit of Alaska. web site: http://www.fine-art.com/ron_rocco Rocco's collaborative projects have included an interdisciplinary work with choreographer Mel Wong and the Mel Wong Dance Company to produce the computer/video dance performance, Buddha Meets Einstein at the Great Wall, presented at New York's Asia Society. This work was sponsored by The National Endowment for the Arts, Interdisciplinary Arts Program in 1985. As an artists-in-residence and guest faculty at The Banff Center in Alberta, Canada musician David Hykes, of The Harmonic Choir and Rocco developed a computer assisted laser/video work which generated kinetic cycles of visual and audio phenomena for the viewer. The installation provided real-time graphic representation of sound, employing a laser scanner system to generate a digital processed, video feedback loop. This element along with superimpositions of digital artifacts from a frame buffer, created a visual tension with images that became abstract and strikingly calligraphic. Since 1990, Rocco has undertaken two major European projects during his residencies at Kunstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin, Germany and Kunst & Complex in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The Berlin Project, the fruit of his work at the Kunstlerhaus International Studio Program, was a body of art works which identified distinct facets of Berlin's evolving social dynamic. The objects showcased in this exhibition, referenced the socialist realism found in the eastern parts of the city, as well as commercial elements taken from the west. The project, parts of which are now in the permanent collection of the Berlinische Gallery, utilized images taken from the streets and transit system of the city, as well as historical references to reveal the new rules in a economic strategy now being formulated in that city. Private Parts, the product of his residency at Kunst & Complex in 1993, focused on self-examination. However, in this case self is not defined as limited to the individual. This group of art works, which delineate personal issues such as age, masculinity, and health take on more global meanings in this context, addressing questions of human frailty, genocide and social values in times of transition. In this body of works, I often refer to elements of control and order and to environments bordering on social cataclysm, with images of sinking ships, deserted streets and disoriented swimmers. This work functioned as a diary of thoughts and images from a year of painful transformation in Europe, the work posted warnings of all that is at stake in the search for peace and unification in Europe. Recently Rocco's Internet projects, Rabinal Achi/Zapatista Port Action in collaboration with Ricardo Dominguez for the M.I.T/List Center Gallery's exhibition PORT/Navigating Digital Culture and Communicating Vessels with Dutch artist Arnold Schalks have provided a new stage for his ideas. With Rabinal Achi/Zapatista Port Action, Ricardo and Rocco fuse high drama and social commentary into a work which spanned eight hundred years of Mayan history. The eight broadcast events we produced brought news clips from the Chiapas front, interviews, discussion groups and Mayan theater to the List Gallery and the Internet. Rabinal Achi/Zapatista Port Action was a composite work weaving a history of the Zapatista movement with a VRML bridge, live audio and video streams and chat text in an enactment of the Rabinal-Achi, classic Mayan theater of highland Guatemala. Communicating Vessels, was presented as a maritime contribution to the Snug Harbor Cultural Center's program Ahab's Wife. As a site specific and Internet based project for the St. George terminal of the Staten Island Ferry, this project was based in maritime subjects, technology and historical circumstance. It explored the relationship of Snug Harbor Cultural Center's past as a home for retired seamen, to the present refuge for aged sailors located in Sea Level, North Carolina. Through interviews with the residents of the North Carolina facility, Communicating Vessels explored the ocean as a connective element between the Harbor's former location in New York, and its present location in Sea Level, employing the Internet, cellular phones, an information kiosk at the site, newspapers and other publications. EDUCATION 1983 Center for Advanced Visual Study at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Ma. Master of Science in Visual Studies Candidate. 1976 State University of New York, College at Purchase, N.Y. Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree. 1972 Fordham University, Bronx, N.Y. Bachelor of Science Candidate HONORS AND AWARDS 2003 New York Foundation for the Arts, Award in Printmaking. 2002 Nominated for the Joan Mitchell Foundation award. 1998 CBK Centrum Bildende Kunst, Rotterdam and The Netherlands Consul to North America, with Arnold Schalks for Communicating Vessels. 1989 The Netherland-America Foundation, under the Patronage of Her Royal Highness Princess Margriet for The Waterline Project. The Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts. Art Matters Foundation. New York Foundation for the Arts, Award in Sculpture. 1985 New York State Council on the Arts, Individual Artist Program: Sponsored Projects. 1984 National Endowment for the Arts, Interdisciplinary Arts Program, with the Mel Wong Dance Co. 1982 New York State Council on the Arts, Individual Artist Program: Sponsored Projects. 1977-79 National Endowment for the Arts, Expansion Arts Program for Festival Ithaca Projects. 1977 The Creative and Performing Arts Council of Cornell University, Award in Sculpture. 1976 The Sculpture Award of the Ithaca Art Association. SOLO EXHIBITIONS AND EVENTS 2004 Brooklyn Public Library, Brooklyn, N.Y. Structures of Detention Hudson Guild, N.Y., N.Y. Frei Zeit 2002 Galerie Völcker & Freunde, Berlin, Germany. Sackgasse /Dead End 1999 University of Massachusetts, Lowell, Massachusetts. Collected Visions 1993 Warehouse Galerie, Amsterdam, Netherlands. Private Parts 1991 Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany. The Berlin Project. Amerika Haus, Berlin, Germany. The Berlin Project. 1989 Foundation Artgarden, Amsterdam, Netherlands. Sculpture: The Waterline Project. 1987 P.S.1 Museum Long.Island.City., N.Y. Sculpture: Special Projects. 1983 Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, N.Y., N.Y. A Performance: Zaroff's Tale. 1981 Gallery Danielli, Toronto, Canada. Ron Rocco: New Sculpture. Herbert F. Johnson Museum, Ithaca , New York Meketra Installation 1976 Arnot Art Museum, Elmira, N.Y. Sculpture SELECTED EXHIBITIONS AND EVENTS 2004 Scope /New York Galerie Völcker & Freunde, N.Y., N.Y Frei Zeit 2001 Gallery 138, New York, New York. The Museum of Unspoken Desire Collaborative Concepts, Beacon, New York. Inaugural Invitational ABC NO RIO, Fire Patrol #5 Gallery and The Hudson Guild, New York, New York. The Politics of Racism 2000 Islip Art Museum/Anthony Giordano Gallery, Islip, New York. Urban Nature Galerie Völcker & Freunde, Berlin, Germany. The Berlin Diary Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco and POST Gallery, Los Angeles, California. Pierogi 2000 Flatfiles 1999 Campo & Campo, Antwerp, Belgium. Twenty-six American Artists. Galerie Völcker & Freunde, Berlin, Germany. Carriage Return /Junge K¸nstler zum Thema Computer, Kommunilation und Dynamik. Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery, The University of the Arts Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Pierogi 2000 Flatfiles 1998 Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Staten Island, New York Communicating Vessels Weatherspoon Art Gallery Greensboro, North Carolina. Pierogi 2000 Flatfiles Kunstlerhaus Vienna, Austria. Pierogi 2000 Flatfiles 1997 Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, New York. Pierogi 2000 Flatfiles at Current Undercurrent: Working in Brooklyn The Herbert and Vera List Center at M.I.T. Cambridge, Massachusetts. PORT/Navigating Digital Culture Gasworks-London, and Cornerhouse-Manchester, England. Pierogi 2000 Flatfiles 1996 Rotunda Gallery, Brooklyn, New York. Luminous Bodies Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, New York. 25 years of Visual Arts at Purchase Sylvia White Gallery, New York, New York. Reality Check: Cultural Questions and Political Commentaries 1995 ISEA95 Montreal, International Exhibition of Electronic Art. Andro-media 1992 Galerie Schoen+Nalepa, Berlin, Germany. Aktuelle Strömungen 1991 FundaÁao DemÛcrito Rocha, Fortalesca, Brazil. ExposiÁao Internacional de Esc?lturas EfÍmeras 1990 The Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, N.Y. The Technological Muse. The Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, N.Y. Installation: The Horizon is Nothing More than the Limit of Our Sight. 1989 The University Art Gallery, S.U.N.Y. at Albany, N.Y. NYFA Fellows: Sculpture. 1987 Brooklyn Art and Cultural Assoc., Brooklyn, N.Y. Sculpture: A Warning to My Friends. P.S.1 /Institute for Art and Urban Resources, N.Y., N.Y. Sculpture: Special Projects. The Banff Center, Alberta, Canada Installation for the Visualization of Sound. 1986 CAD/CAM International Exhibition of Computer Artforms, Kortijk, Belgium. Time Studies for Modern Dance. Cathedral of St.John the Divine, N.Y., N.Y. The Visualization of Sound: Light Sphere with The Harmonic Choir. 1985 The Asia Society, N.Y., N.Y. Buddha Meets Einstein at the Great Wall. The Video Image Invitational, Foundation Georgio Ronchi, Capri, Italy. Time Studies for Modern Dance. The Bronx Museum of Art, Bronx, N.Y. The Artist and the Computer. Ron Rocco 373 Sackett Street, 1 Brooklyn, N.Y. 11231-4703 Telephone /fax: 718-852-6350 E-mail: [email protected] SELECTED EXHIBITIONS AND EVENTS (continued) 1983 United Nations, N.Y., N.Y. Performance: A String Form for Binding Nations. Center for Advanced Visual Study at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Ma. Installation: Andromedia 1. 1981 Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York Mini-ParapPerform-Actions: Zaroff's Tale Herbert F. Johnson Museum, Ithaca, New York. A Week of Performance Art: Laser Sculpture Dance 1981 The Showing Room, New York, New York. Performance and sculpture installation: Raw Data for the I.V. IV Biennale Internazionale Dantesca, Ravenna, Italy. Small Sculpture 1977 First Festival Ithaca, Ithaca, New York. The Altair Installation 1975 Roy R. Neuberger Museum, Purchase, New York. Installation: Untitled One APPOINTMENTS, COMMISSIONS AND ASSOCIATIONS 1997 Art work selected for commission as part of the New Jersey Transit Hudson-Bergen Light Rail station at West Avenue Jersey City, N.J. 1996 Selected for sculpture commission as part of the New York Metropolitan Transit Authority's LIRR Rail station at Long Beach, N.Y. 1996-01 Appointed Board of Director for ASCI/Art and Science Collaborations. N.Y., N.Y. 1993 The Berlin Project, acquired by The Berlinische Galerie in Berlin Germany as part of the permanent collection. International Studio Program at KUNST & COMPLEX. Rotterdam, Netherlands. Artist-in-Residence 1991-92 International Studio Program at Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany. Guest Artist 1990 Sculpture selected for purchase as part of the Washington State Art Commission's Art in Public Schools Program. Seattle, WA. The Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, N.Y. commissions the installation: The Horizon is Nothing More than the Limit of Our Sight for the exhibition Working in Brooklyn. 1977-90 Guest Lecturer, S.U.N.Y. Albany, N.Y.; Harvard University Cambridge, Ma.; Columbia University, N.Y., N.Y.; Cornell University Ithaca, N.Y. 1989 The Waterline Project, commissioned by Foundation ArtGarden with funds from The Netherlands America Foundation Amsterdam, Netherlands 1982-01 Resident Video Artist, The Experimental T.V. Center, Owego, N.Y. 1987 Artist in Residence, The Banff Center, Alberta, Canada. 1977 First Festival Ithaca, Ithaca, New York commissions Altair with funding from The National Endowment for the Arts. 1977-79 Founder/Director, The Ithaca Artists Cooperative, Ithaca, New York. SELECTED COLLECTIONS Sandra Amann and Michael Pashby, New York, New York; Lisa Levart and Myles Aronowitz, Nyack, New York; Mr. and Mrs. Charles Barquist, Los Angeles, California; The Berlinische Galerie Berlin, Germany; Cornell University, Ithaca, New York; Mr. William Basta, Greenwich, Connecticut; Mr. Charles Beachley, Paris, Texas; Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Berlinger, Katonah, New York ; Mr. David Bower, Chicago, Illinois; Ms. Leslie Bussis, New York, New York; Mr. and Mrs. Christopher Clark, Greenwich,Connecticut; Dr. Joseph Dalessandro DDS, Nyack, New York; The Family and Children's Service Center, Ithaca, New York; Ms. Sorrel Fisher, Washington, D.C.; Gallery Danielli, Toronto, Canada; Ms. Susan Hapgood, New York, New York; Dara and Evan Kingsley, Brooklyn, New York; Mr. Masa Matsuzaki, Tokyo, Japan; Mr. Timothy Mehne, Houston, Texas; New Jersey Transit Hudson-Bergen Light Rail Station at West Avenue Jersey City, N.J.; Ms. Lauren Noia, San Diego, California; Ms. Holly Pope, Boston, Massachusetts; Mr. Jan Quaegebeure, New York, N.Y.; Mr. Harvey Redding, New York, New York; Ms. Barbara Rosenthal, Bennington, Vermont; The Washington State Arts Council/Art in Public Places, Seattle, Washington. SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY The New York Times Arts & Entertainment April 22, 2001 Inaugural Invitational at Collaborative Concepts, Beacon, New York Warehouse Galerie, Amsterdam, Netherlands Ron Rocco Private Parts - Rotterdam 1993 Leonardo Magazine, Vol.26 #4 1993 New Horizons: Notes on a Video Installation FundaÁao DemÛcrito Rocha, Fortalesca, Brazil 1991. ExposiÁao Internacional de Esc?lturas EfÍmeras Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany Ron Rocco The Berlin Project 1991 Plus, Minus, Zero Brussel, Belgium Dec. 1991 Le Projet Berlin Berliner Morgenpost, Dec.17, 1991 Kunst-Splitter: Amerika Haus Brandenburg Kurier, Dec.13, 1991 Neue Ausstellung: Ron Rocco / The Berlin Project The New York Times, Friday, Dec.28, 1990 Exhibition in Katonah: The Machine as Muse The Danbury New Times, Vol.8/Issue 46 Nov.17, 1990 Art and Technology The Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, New York 1990 The Technological Muse The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York October 1990 Working in Brooklyn / Installations The Phoenix, Brooklyn, New York August 9, 1990 Art Made in Brooklyn New York Newsday, Tuesday, Aug.7, 1990 Installations with Twists of their Own Greenline, Brooklyn, New York May 1990 "Celebration" - Artists Exhibit in Local Lofts The Netherland-America Foundation, New York, New York Annual Report 1989 Newark Star Ledger, April 26, 1987 Art: Morris Exhibit Interfaces Art and Modern Science The Arizona Republic, Dimitri Drobatschewsky Nov.22, 1986 East meets West Beaux Arts Magazine, No.26 Juil/Aout 1985 Video a Capri The New York Times, Monday April 4, 1985 Art from All Corners: Buddah Meets Einstein The Guggenheim Museum, New York, New York Annual Report 1983 The New York Times, Tuesday, Sept.6, 1983 Suspense Story The New York Times, May 26, 1981 Ron Rocco/Laser Sculpture Dance High Performance Magazine, Issue 17-18/Vol.5 #1 Summer 1982 Ron Rocco/Laser Sculpture Dance 1981 Edizioni del Centro Dantesco, Ravenna, Italy Ottobre 1979 L'Inferno di Dante e dell 'Uomo Moderno The Times Gazette, Ithaca, New York March 11, 1978. Inside Art: New Ithaca Gallery Shows Two Sculptors The Times Gazette, Ithaca, New York April 14, 1977. Art Ron Rocco: Physically Sound