Rodney Artiles

(b.1975) lives and works in San Francisco CA

Art can change how we look at our surroundings. The representations we see in art challenge not only our shared, if rarely articulated, notions of legitimate representation, but also what we perceive as interesting, or relevant to our culture, as beautiful in itself. My goal in painting is not to represent objects in the world, but to call attention to the act of seeing that makes representation possible. My paintings are field notes from a life. Taken together they are a necessarily incomplete account of my observations on what it means to be a human in the world, set down in shapes and lines, colors and textures. For the past ten years I have explored through painting the relationship between what is on, and what we perceive as being on the canvas. In my most prominent series I paint my way into unfamiliar territory, abstracting the ground of the canvas. I survey the canvas, isolating within it areas suggesting discrete images. I then paint around the edges of these images to reveal them through a figure-ground reversal. These isolated images are, to me, extremely important. They are an object lesson in how we perceive ...

EDUCATION MFA in Painting, Academie Minerva/ Frank Mohr Inst., Groningen, NetherlandsBFA in Painting, California College of the Arts (CCAC), Oakland, CaliforniaSOLO EXHIBITIONS2007Mutual Respect/ Canvas and Clay -two person show with Chukes, Joyce Gordon Gallery, Oakland, CA2005 Bird on a Wire, Joyce Gordon Gallery, Oakland CA2002 South for the Winter, Animal Art Gallery, Menlo Park, CASELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS2009Street Art at Het Filiaal, Het Filiaal (CBK) Groningen. NL 2007A Class Act CCA-c, Joyce Gordon Gallery, Oakland, CASALON -Artisans Art gallery San Rafael, CA 6th annual benefit auction, Root division, San Francisco, CA2006 Selected Works, Joyce Gordon Gallery, Oakland, CA5th annual Benefit Auction, Root Division, San Francisco, CA2005 Opposition, Joyce Gordon Gallery, Oakland, CASelected Works, Joyce Gordon Gallery, Oakland, CA2004Opposite of Sex, The Magic Theater/Fort Mason Bldg. D. San Francisco, CACommon Bonds, Joyce Gordon Gallery, Oakland, CA2003East Bay Open Studios, Pro Arts Gallery, Oakland, CA2001Recent Works, Hey! Gallery, Oakland, CAWhere Things Halt, screening/installation, Gallery SYB, Beetsterzwaag, NetherlandsWorkstad in Las Palmas/project Disposition, Las Palmas Building, Rotterdam, Netherlands 20002...