Spencer Selby Abstraction

In the parlance of today's theory my work is, has always been, pluralist. Despite periods of heavy emphasis, there's never been a time when I was engaged in a single discipline. This interest in multi-specialties (including decades spent as a text poet, visual poet and film historian) has given my art a broad spectrum of influences. My practice in each field has evolved in a nonlinear way, exploring different styles and developing techniques that eventually became what I'd call an internalized methodology.

It is said that appropriative art generates meaning by selection and recontextualization, while abstract art's meaning is more the result of invention and a quest for autonomy. I believe my art benefits from both of these systems. Found source material is dismantled, turning it into raw material that is used to produce completely new work. This art has pronounced formal qualities and stretches from the outside limits of representation, both textual and figurative, to various kinds of pure abstraction.

The aim of my practice is to stimulate the viewer's imaginative contemplation. While I have no program, one context that has been important involves the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze, whose aesthetic concepts do resonate with w...

Born and raised in the Midwest. Studied political science, psychology and film history at The University of Iowa. In San Francisco started Sink Press, and coordinated The Canessa Park Reading Series in North Beach from 1987-93. Created and managed Selby’s List of Experimental Poetry/Art Magazines from 1993-2013. Focus on written work gradually transitioned to visual art, becoming almost complete in recent years. Is now a core member and curator of Glitch Artists Collective.

Art Website http://www.selbysart.com/ Worldwide Noir http://worldwidenoir.info/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/spencer.selby.5