David Schafer
Encyclopedia
David Schafer is an American visual artist based in New York. He attended The Art Institute of Kansas City, Missouri from 1973–75, received a B.A. from the University of Missouri, Kansas City in 1979 and an M.F.A. in Sculpture from the University of Texas, Austin in 1983.
Schafer works across multiple platforms of production including collaborations with architects, graphic designers, voice actors, digital engineers, fabricators, and sound studios. Schafer’s work is driven by a wide range of theoretical and personal references, which manifests mostly around the idea of site, language, and the built environment. Appropriating from the vocabulary and motifs of Modernism
, and an array of idiosyncratic subjects from popular culture and theory, Schafer develops projects that are sculptural as well as text, graphic, and sound based. Schafer’s work intertwines language with architectural form as a critical exercise of spatial grammar and narrative structures.
His work has been presented in numerous group exhibitions including those at Lawrimore Project, Seattle, WA, The Sculpture Center, New York, The Brooklyn Museum of Art, NY, The Baltimore Museum of Art, Williamson Gallery, Art Center College of Design
, Los Angeles, George Adams Gallery, New York, Artists Space], White Columns
, The Drawing Center, New York, The Luckman Fine Arts Gallery, California State University, Long Beach Art Museum, Los Angeles, Norton Simon Museum
, Pasadena, CA, The De Vleeshal, Netherlands.
In 2006, Schafer was awarded a One Percent for the Arts Commission for the Huntington Hospital in Pasadena, CA, and in 1989, Schafer received an artist award in Sculpture from the National Endowment for the Arts
.
Schafer’s work has been published in several exhibition catalogues as well as; Art issues, Flash Art, Sculpture Magazine
, New Art Examiner, Art and Text, LA Weekly
, Los Angeles Times
, Art Papers
, The New York Times
, and The New Yorker
. His sound works have been written about in New York Press
, The Anti-Fun Magazine of Belgium, Cabinet Magazine and his own writings have appeared in Art Papers
, X-tra, Cool and Strange Music Magazine, Exotica/Etcetera, The Journal of Aesthetics and Protest and Documents Journal.
Schafer works across multiple platforms of production including collaborations with architects, graphic designers, voice actors, digital engineers, fabricators, and sound studios. Schafer’s work is driven by a wide range of theoretical and personal references, which manifests mostly around the idea of site, language, and the built environment. Appropriating from the vocabulary and motifs of Modernism
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
, and an array of idiosyncratic subjects from popular culture and theory, Schafer develops projects that are sculptural as well as text, graphic, and sound based. Schafer’s work intertwines language with architectural form as a critical exercise of spatial grammar and narrative structures.
Exhibitions
In addition to several public art projects, Schafer’s work has been shown in solo exhibitions at Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Santa Monica, Sara Meltzer Gallery, New York, Works on Paper, Inc, Los Angeles, and PS1, Long Island City, New York, Van Rooy Gallery, Netherlands.His work has been presented in numerous group exhibitions including those at Lawrimore Project, Seattle, WA, The Sculpture Center, New York, The Brooklyn Museum of Art, NY, The Baltimore Museum of Art, Williamson Gallery, Art Center College of Design
Art Center College of Design
Art Center College of Design is a private college located in Pasadena, California, and was cited by BusinessWeek as one of the 60 best design schools in the world. The college’s industrial design program is consistently ranked number one by both DesignIntelligence and U.S...
, Los Angeles, George Adams Gallery, New York, Artists Space], White Columns
White Columns
White Columns is New York City’s oldest alternative non-profit space and one of its most prestigious. White Columns is known as a show case for up and coming artists....
, The Drawing Center, New York, The Luckman Fine Arts Gallery, California State University, Long Beach Art Museum, Los Angeles, Norton Simon Museum
Norton Simon Museum
The Norton Simon Museum is an Art Museum located in Pasadena, California, United States. It was previously known by the names: the Pasadena Art Institute and the Pasadena Art Museum.-Overview:...
, Pasadena, CA, The De Vleeshal, Netherlands.
In 2006, Schafer was awarded a One Percent for the Arts Commission for the Huntington Hospital in Pasadena, CA, and in 1989, Schafer received an artist award in Sculpture from the National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
.
Schafer’s work has been published in several exhibition catalogues as well as; Art issues, Flash Art, Sculpture Magazine
Sculpture (magazine)
Sculpture ia a magazine published by the International Sculpture Center , a nonprofit organization founded in 1960 to promote interest and understanding of the art form. The organization is located at the old New Jersey Fairgrounds in Hamilton, New Jersey...
, New Art Examiner, Art and Text, LA Weekly
LA Weekly
LA Weekly is a free weekly tabloid-sized "alternative weekly" in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1978 by Editor/Publisher Jay Levin and a board of directors that included actor-producer Michael Douglas...
, Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
, Art Papers
Art papers
FileART PAPERS is a non-profit bimonthly magazine about contemporary art. Established in 1977 as the Atlanta Art Workers Coalition Ltd. Newsletter, it is the only critical arts magazine published in the Southeastern United States...
, The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, and The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
. His sound works have been written about in New York Press
New York Press
New York Press was a free alternative weekly in New York City, that was published from 1988 to 2011. During its lifetime, it was the main competitor to the Village Voice...
, The Anti-Fun Magazine of Belgium, Cabinet Magazine and his own writings have appeared in Art Papers
Art papers
FileART PAPERS is a non-profit bimonthly magazine about contemporary art. Established in 1977 as the Atlanta Art Workers Coalition Ltd. Newsletter, it is the only critical arts magazine published in the Southeastern United States...
, X-tra, Cool and Strange Music Magazine, Exotica/Etcetera, The Journal of Aesthetics and Protest and Documents Journal.
Public projects
- 2006 Separated United Forms, Huntington Memorial Out Patient Pavilion, Pasadena, CA.
- 2005 D-Play: IT House, “Outfit” window scrim proposals, taalmankoch Architecture, Los Angeles, CA
- 2004 Futureways-The Middelburg Triennial, De Vleeshal, Middelburg, Holland
- 2004 Treble, The Sculpture Center, LIC, NY
- 2000 Cluster 38, KBond, Los Angeles, CA
- 1995 Reading Rooms, Lauren Wittels Gallery, New York City
- 1993 New Century Trellis, Public Art Fund. MetroTech Center, Brooklyn, NY.
- 1993 Pastoral Mirage, Prospect Art Alliance, Prospect Park, Brooklyn, NY.
- 1991 Liberty Prop, Public Art Fund, City Hall Park, New York City, NY.
- 1989 Model Q, Sculpture Chicago, City Front Plaza, Chicago, IL.
- 1988 Plaza of the First Reader, Public Art Fund, Columbus Park, Brooklyn, NY
- 1988 Outdoor Sculpture, Fulton Ferry State Park, Brooklyn, NY. Public Art Fund
- 1988 Altered Sites, Fairmont Park, Philadelphia, PA