Sandow Birk
Encyclopedia
Sandow Birk is an American
artist
from Southern California
. He has an extensive history of exhibitions both national and international, and has received many prestigious grants and awards. Five books have been published on his works and he has made two films. The majority of his work has dealt with contemporary American life. With an emphasis on social issues, his frequent themes have included inner city
violence
, graffiti
, various political issues, travel, prison
s, surfing
and skateboarding
, and most recently a series on "Death in America" and the war in Iraq
.
) in Los Angeles
.
In 2000, Birk exhibited an epic, pseudo-historical series entitled "In Smog and Thunder”, describing a "Great War of the Californias" in which Los Angeles
and San Francisco wage all-out war for control of California
, at the Laguna Art Museum
. The series included such titles as "The Great Battle of Los Angeles". His "mockumentary
" film of the same name has won numerous awards at film festivals across the country.
His series of idyllic landscape paintings of every one of California's 33 state prisons was exhibited at the Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum in 2001. A book has been published on the project, entitled Incarcerated: Visions of California in the 21st Century. In 2002, Birk expanded this project by depicting all of New York State's maximum security prisons in the style of Hudson River School artists from the 19th century. The project was exhibited in New York at Debs and Co. Gallery and works from the series are included in the collection of the New York Historical Society.
In 2005, Birk collaborated with writer Marcus Sanders on a rewriting and illustrating of the entirety of Dante
's Divine Comedy, in which Dante and Virgil
wander among the souls of the afterworld and discuss faith and philosophy with historical figures. The 13th century poem was translated into contemporary American English by Sanders, while Birk provided illustrations that adapt Gustave Dore
's classic illustrations into 21st century imagery. Birk's illustrations were exhibited at the San Jose Museum of Art
in 2005 and traveled to several institutions. The work was later published in three volumes.
A feature film adaptation of the Dante project, entitled Dante's Inferno
was made by Birk and Sanders in collaboration with Paul Zaloom, Sean Meredith, and Elyse Pignolet. Starring the voices of Dermot Mulroney
and James Cromwell
as Dante and Virgil respectively, the film was featured at film festivals across the United States in 2007, garnering awards for "Best Director" at the Silverlake Film Festival and "Audience Favorite" at the San Francisco Film Festival.
.
There is also pervasive California-related humor. In one "Fogtown" battle scene, Rendezvous at Twin Peaks (1996, acrylic on canvas, 50 x 50 inches) a "roach coach" lunch truck is part of a scene including people on horseback and tanks on a hill. Many battles feature armored vehicles with Ralph's grocery store logos, submarines with the CBS
eye, and comic mixtures of medieval
and modern armaments and vehicles.
Some work is ink on paper. There are a number of works which include the Getty Center
, (usually under attack). These include The End of the Siege of the Getty (1998, ink on paper, 17 x 14 inches), Midnight Assault on the Getty, (1998, ink on paper, 17 x 14 inches), and The Heaving of Major Applicances During the Assault on the Getty, (1998, ink on paper, 17 x 14 inches). In The Heaving, several people struggle to load a clothes dryer on to a trebuchet
aimed at the Getty while others stand around with their hands in their pockets.
Images have the overtones of serious documentary works with visual elements that make for a humorous twist. There is a mixture of modern landmarks like Sutro Tower and the Transamerica Pyramid
while soldiers ride horses or Harley-Davidson
motorcycles. Stereotypes about San Francisco's gayness and the brutality of L.A. police officers is often part of a work.
in 1995, a Guggenheim Fellowship
in 1996, and a Fulbright Fellowship to Rio de Janeiro
, Brazil
, for 1997. In 1999 he was awarded a Getty Fellowship for painting, followed by a City of Los Angeles (COLA) Fellowship in 2001.
In 2007 Sandow Birk was awarded an Artist in Residence Fellowship at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American Art in Washington, D.C. While there, he researched and worked on an upcoming project of the "Illustrated Constitution of the United States", scheduled for exhibition at PPOW Gallery in New York City in 2008.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
from Southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
. He has an extensive history of exhibitions both national and international, and has received many prestigious grants and awards. Five books have been published on his works and he has made two films. The majority of his work has dealt with contemporary American life. With an emphasis on social issues, his frequent themes have included inner city
Inner city
The inner city is the central area of a major city or metropolis. In the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Ireland, the term is often applied to the lower-income residential districts in the city centre and nearby areas...
violence
Violence
Violence is the use of physical force to apply a state to others contrary to their wishes. violence, while often a stand-alone issue, is often the culmination of other kinds of conflict, e.g...
, graffiti
Graffiti
Graffiti is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property....
, various political issues, travel, prison
Prison
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...
s, surfing
Surfing
Surfing' is a surface water sport in which the surfer rides a surfboard on the crest and face of a wave which is carrying the surfer towards the shore...
and skateboarding
Skateboarding
Skateboarding is an action sport which involves riding and performing tricks using a skateboard.Skateboarding can be a recreational activity, an art form, a job, or a method of transportation. Skateboarding has been shaped and influenced by many skateboarders throughout the years. A 2002 report...
, and most recently a series on "Death in America" and the war in Iraq
2003 invasion of Iraq
The 2003 invasion of Iraq , was the start of the conflict known as the Iraq War, or Operation Iraqi Freedom, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq and toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in 21 days of major combat operations...
.
Career
Birk is a graduate of Otis Art Institute of Parsons School of Design (now Otis College of Art and DesignOtis College of Art and Design
Otis College of Art and Design is an art and design college in Los Angeles, California.The school's programs, accredited by WASC and National Association of Schools of Art and Design, include four-year BFA degrees in illustration, fine arts, graphic design, architecture, landscape design, interior...
) in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
.
In 2000, Birk exhibited an epic, pseudo-historical series entitled "In Smog and Thunder”, describing a "Great War of the Californias" in which Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
and San Francisco wage all-out war for control of California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, at the Laguna Art Museum
Laguna Art Museum
The Laguna Art Museum is a museum located in Laguna Beach, California on Pacific Coast Highway.An exhibition titled ...
. The series included such titles as "The Great Battle of Los Angeles". His "mockumentary
Mockumentary
A mockumentary , is a type of film or television show in which fictitious events are presented in documentary format. These productions are often used to analyze or comment on current events and issues by using a fictitious setting, or to parody the documentary form itself...
" film of the same name has won numerous awards at film festivals across the country.
His series of idyllic landscape paintings of every one of California's 33 state prisons was exhibited at the Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum in 2001. A book has been published on the project, entitled Incarcerated: Visions of California in the 21st Century. In 2002, Birk expanded this project by depicting all of New York State's maximum security prisons in the style of Hudson River School artists from the 19th century. The project was exhibited in New York at Debs and Co. Gallery and works from the series are included in the collection of the New York Historical Society.
In 2005, Birk collaborated with writer Marcus Sanders on a rewriting and illustrating of the entirety of Dante
DANTE
Delivery of Advanced Network Technology to Europe is a not-for-profit organisation that plans, builds and operates the international networks that interconnect the various national research and education networks in Europe and surrounding regions...
's Divine Comedy, in which Dante and Virgil
Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro, usually called Virgil or Vergil in English , was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for three major works of Latin literature, the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid...
wander among the souls of the afterworld and discuss faith and philosophy with historical figures. The 13th century poem was translated into contemporary American English by Sanders, while Birk provided illustrations that adapt Gustave Dore
Gustave Doré
Paul Gustave Doré was a French artist, engraver, illustrator and sculptor. Doré worked primarily with wood engraving and steel engraving.-Biography:...
's classic illustrations into 21st century imagery. Birk's illustrations were exhibited at the San Jose Museum of Art
San Jose Museum of Art
The San Jose Museum of Art is an art museum in Downtown San Jose, California, USA. Founded in 1969, the museum hosts a large permanent collection emphasizing West Coast artists of the 20th- and 21st-century. It is located next to the Circle of Palms Plaza and Plaza de César Chávez...
in 2005 and traveled to several institutions. The work was later published in three volumes.
A feature film adaptation of the Dante project, entitled Dante's Inferno
Dante's Inferno (2007 film)
Dante's Inferno is a 2007 comedy film performed with hand-drawn paper puppets on a toy theater stage. The film was adapted from the book "Dante's Inferno" by Sandow Birk and Marcus Sanders , which is a modern update of the canticle Inferno from Dante Alighieri's epic poem The Divine Comedy...
was made by Birk and Sanders in collaboration with Paul Zaloom, Sean Meredith, and Elyse Pignolet. Starring the voices of Dermot Mulroney
Dermot Mulroney
-Early life:Mulroney was born in Alexandria, Virginia, the son of Ellen, a housewife and amateur actress originally from Manchester, Iowa, and Michael Mulroney, a law professor at Villanova University School of Law, originally from Elkader, Iowa. He has a sister, Moira, and three brothers, Conor,...
and James Cromwell
James Cromwell
James Oliver Cromwell is an American film and television actor. Some of his more notable roles are in Babe , for which he earned Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, Star Trek: First Contact , L.A...
as Dante and Virgil respectively, the film was featured at film festivals across the United States in 2007, garnering awards for "Best Director" at the Silverlake Film Festival and "Audience Favorite" at the San Francisco Film Festival.
Themes and style
Birk often takes stylistic inspiration from historic works. For example, the book commemorating his monumental exhibition, In Smog and Thunder: Historical works from The Great War of the Californias "documents" a fictional war between northern and southern California. The battles are defined as "Smogtown versus Fogtown", describing Los Angeles and San Francisco respectively. The style of paintings partly follows paintings depicting the U.S. Revolutionary WarAmerican Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
.
There is also pervasive California-related humor. In one "Fogtown" battle scene, Rendezvous at Twin Peaks (1996, acrylic on canvas, 50 x 50 inches) a "roach coach" lunch truck is part of a scene including people on horseback and tanks on a hill. Many battles feature armored vehicles with Ralph's grocery store logos, submarines with the CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
eye, and comic mixtures of medieval
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
and modern armaments and vehicles.
Some work is ink on paper. There are a number of works which include the Getty Center
Getty Center
The Getty Center, in Brentwood, Los Angeles, California, is a campus for cultural institutions founded by oilman J. Paul Getty. The $1.3 billion center, which opened on December 16, 1997, is also well known for its architecture, gardens, and views overlooking Los Angeles...
, (usually under attack). These include The End of the Siege of the Getty (1998, ink on paper, 17 x 14 inches), Midnight Assault on the Getty, (1998, ink on paper, 17 x 14 inches), and The Heaving of Major Applicances During the Assault on the Getty, (1998, ink on paper, 17 x 14 inches). In The Heaving, several people struggle to load a clothes dryer on to a trebuchet
Trebuchet
A trebuchet is a siege engine that was employed in the Middle Ages. It is sometimes called a "counterweight trebuchet" or "counterpoise trebuchet" in order to distinguish it from an earlier weapon that has come to be called the "traction trebuchet", the original version with pulling men instead of...
aimed at the Getty while others stand around with their hands in their pockets.
Images have the overtones of serious documentary works with visual elements that make for a humorous twist. There is a mixture of modern landmarks like Sutro Tower and the Transamerica Pyramid
Transamerica Pyramid
The Transamerica Pyramid is the tallest skyscraper in the San Francisco skyline and one of its most iconic. Although the building no longer houses the headquarters of the Transamerica Corporation, it is still strongly associated with the company and is depicted in the company's logo...
while soldiers ride horses or Harley-Davidson
Harley-Davidson
Harley-Davidson , often abbreviated H-D or Harley, is an American motorcycle manufacturer. Founded in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, during the first decade of the 20th century, it was one of two major American motorcycle manufacturers to survive the Great Depression...
motorcycles. Stereotypes about San Francisco's gayness and the brutality of L.A. police officers is often part of a work.
Awards
Birk was a recipient of an NEA International Travel Grant to Mexico CityMexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
in 1995, a Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
in 1996, and a Fulbright Fellowship to Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, for 1997. In 1999 he was awarded a Getty Fellowship for painting, followed by a City of Los Angeles (COLA) Fellowship in 2001.
In 2007 Sandow Birk was awarded an Artist in Residence Fellowship at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American Art in Washington, D.C. While there, he researched and worked on an upcoming project of the "Illustrated Constitution of the United States", scheduled for exhibition at PPOW Gallery in New York City in 2008.
Representation
Birk is represented by the Koplin del Rio Gallery in Los Angeles, Catharine Clark Gallery in San Francisco, and P.P.O.W. Gallery in New York City.Published titles
Published works including Birk's art:- Sandow Birk's "In Smog and Thunder : Historical works from The Great War of the Californias" / curated by Tyler Stallings, (Laguna Beach, Calif.: Laguna Art Museum, c2000). ISBN 0-86719-497-9
- Incarcerated : visions of California in the 21st century: paintings and prints from the Prisonation series / by Sandow Birk, (Santa Barbara, CA: Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum ; San Francisco, CA : Last Gasp, c2001). ISBN 0-86719-534-7 (pbk.)
- Dante’s Paradiso / illustrated by Sandow Birk ; text adapted by Sandow Birk and Marcus Sanders ; preface by Peter S. Hawkins ; foreword by Mary Campbell ; introduction by Michael F. Meister, (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, c2005). ISBN 0-8118-4720-9
- Dante’s Purgatorio / illustrated by Sandow Birk ; text adapted by Sandow Birk and Marcus Sanders ; preface by Marcia Tanner ; introduction by Michael F. Meister, (San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books, c2005). ISBN 0-8118-4719-5 (pbk.)
- Dante’s Inferno / illustrated by Sandow Birk ; text adapted by Sandow Birk and Marcus Sanders. Inferno. English, (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, c2004). ISBN 0-8118-4213-4 (pbk.)
External links
- The artist's own web site.
- "Dante's Inferno" (the movie). The website for the feature film based on Birk's art project on the Inferno. The film will premiere in 2007.
- "In Smog and Thunder" (2003) The mockumentary film based on Birk's California Civil War paintings.
- 2001 show in Santa Barbara.
- Marcia Landow and Sandow Birk, "Be All That You Can Be: An Interview with Sandow Birk", Cabinet, Summer 2003.