John Roloff

Bio:

John Roloff is a visual artist who works conceptually with site, process and natural systems. He is known primarily for his outdoor kiln/furnace projects done from the late 1970’s to the early 1990’s as well as other large-scale environmental and gallery installations investigating geologic and natural phenomena. Based on a background in science, his work engages poetic and site-specific relationships between material, concept and performance in the domains of geology, ecology, architecture, ceramics, industry and mining, metabolic systems and history. He studied geology at UC Davis, Davis, CA with Professor Eldridge Moores and others during the formative days of plate tectonics in the mid-1960’s. Subsequently, he studied art with Bob Arneson and William T. Wiley also at UC Davis in the late 1960’s. In addition to numerous environmental, site-specific installations in the US, Canada and Europe, his work has been included in exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art, UC Berkeley Museum, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Smithsonian Institution, Photoscene Cologne and the Venice Architectural and Art Biennales and The Snow Show in Kemi, Finland. He has received 3 artists visual arts fellowships from the NEA, a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship, a California Arts Council grant for visual artists and a Bernard Osher Fellowship at the Exploratorium, San Francisco, CA. He is represented by Gallery Paule Anglim in San Francisco, CA. He is currently Chair of the Sculpture/Ceramics Department at the San Francisco Art Institute.

Environmental Installations/Commissions:

2009-10 Quaternary Explorations: Tule Elk Habitat, site studies, Presidio, San Francisco, CA

2008-11 San Francisco Wharf Complex, site studies, Exploratorium Osher Fellowship, San Francisco, CA

2006-11 Oakland Estuary Channel Project, with Lewis deSoto and Sasaki & Associates, Oakland, CA

2006 The Seventh Climate (Paradise Reconsidered), I-5 Colonnade Project, Pro Parks Levy, Seattle, WA.

2006 Protogaea Civica III (Santa Rosa, CA), Stratigraphic Column III (San Andreas), Sonoma Museum of Art, Santa Rosa, CA.

2005 Protogaea Civica (Geology Flags: Franciscan Formation/San Francisco, CA II), San Francisco Civic Center, San Francisco, CA

2005 Valley Scan, San Fernando Valley Metro Rapid Transitway Project, Los Angeles, CA.

2004 Pure Mix, The Snow Show, Kemi, Finland (collaboration with Diller + Scofidio).

2002 Stratigraphic Column, 101 California Street, San Francisco, CA.

2001-11 Site Index, School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN.

2000 Wrangelia I & II, proposal drawings, commissioned by the Henry Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle, WA.

2000-05 The Middle of the World, Staten Island Ferries, New Kennedy Class, NYC, NY (with Werner Klotz).

1999 Eocene/Pliocene, Paradise Wood Sculpture Grove, Santa Rosa, CA

1996 Pitzer Project: A Prototype System for the Production and Redistribution of Ancient Sunlight, Pitzer College, Claremont Colleges, Claremont, CA

1996 Compost Project, ALTER Project, Slippery Rock College, Slippery Rock, PA

1993 Deep Gradient/Suspect Terrain (Seasons of the Sea ‘Adrift’), Yerba Buena Gardens, San Francisco, CA

1993 Fragment: The Hidden Sea (Island of Refuge), Stanford University, Stanford, CA

1992 Metabolism and Mortality/O₂, Tyler School Of Art, Elkins Park, PA

1989 Humboldt Ship, CSU Humboldt, Arcata, CA

1989 Vanishing Ship (Third State), Djerassi Foundation, Woodside, CA

1988 Oculus: Dead Sea/Oil Field, Arvada Art Center, Arvada, CO

1988 Oculus: Emerson/ Beebe, Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum and The Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, Santa Barbara, CA

1988 Untitled (Earth Orchid), Hartford School Of Art, Hartford, CT

1988 Isla De Umunnum (Island of the Hummingbirds), Elkhorn Slough Estuarine Reserve, Moss Landing, CA

1987 Talking Tree, University Of Nevada, Reno, Reno, NV

1986 Winter Stream/Drifting Rowboat (Overturned), San Francisco, CA

1986 Ancient Valley (Sea Floor), Swanston Light Rail Station, Sacramento, CA

1985 Ancient Shoreline: Island for Lake Lahontan, University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, NV

1984 Wave Ship (of Fire)/Ice Ship (of Glass), Detroit, MI

1984 Collision: Lava Ship/Trellis Ship, San Rafael, CA

1982 Mountain Kiln/Black Orchid, Oakland, CA

1981 Wave Kiln 1 and 2, Mills College, Oakland, CA

1980 Prairie Starfish/Glacial Epoch, Craven, Saskatchewan, Canada

1980 Land Monitor/ Fired Volcanic Boulder, Albuquerque, NM

One Person Exhibitions (Selected):

2006 Thermodynamics of Silence/New Work, Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA

2002 Holocene Passage, “Intervening the Space, “Archivio Emily Harvey, “NEXT,” Venice Architectural Biennale, Venice, Italy.

2001 Original Depositional Environment, Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA

2000 John Roloff: Displacements, John Michael Kohler Art Center, Sheboygan, WI (brochure)

1999 Morphology of Change, Lance Fung Gallery, New York, NY

1999 Terrain into Architecture: Projection and Displacement, Maryland Institute of Art, Baltimore, MD

1998 The Rising Sea.., Museum of Contemporary Art, Lake Worth, Florida (brochure)

1998 Dialogs with Nature, Lance Fung Gallery, New York, NY

1998 Agricola: Four Works 1994-97, Hartnell College, Salinas, CA

1996 Manchester CG, Pittsburgh, PA

1992 Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA

1989 Fuller Gross Gallery, San Francisco, CA

1988 Hartford School Of Art, Hartford CT

1987 University Art Museum, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA

1986 Himovitz-Solomon Gallery, Sacramento, CA

1985 University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, NV

1984 Fuller Goldeen Gallery, San Francisco, CA

1982 San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA

1981 Theo Portnoy Gallery, New York, NY

Group Exhibitions (Selected):

2010 Habitats, Presidio, San Francisco, CA, Fore-Site Foundation, San Francisco, CA

2009 Wonderland – TAAD/Queen Amie Studio, collaboration with Doug Hall, San Francisco, CA (curated by Lance Fung, catalog)

2009 Adventures of the Fire, The 5^th World Ceramic Biennale, Icheon, Korea (curated by Jeonghee Choi, catalog).

2009 Perils in the Sublime (A Poetic Consideration of Ecology, Landscape and Reconstruction), NCECA 2009, Phoenix, AZ.

2008 Conceptual Art from California, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, n.n.k., Berlin, Germany, curated by Kathrin Becker.

2008 Bay Area Now 5, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA, curated by Kate Eilertson/Berin Golau (catalog)

2008 We Remember the Sun, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA, curated by Mary Ellen Johnson.

2006 Force of Nature: 1906 Earthquake Centennial Exhibition, Sonoma County Museum, Santa Rosa, CA

2005 High 5, site works, International Center for the Arts, SFSU, San Francisco, CA

2005 Metro Orange Line Art Exhibition, Pierce College, Woodland Hills, CA.

2005 Western Biennale of Art, Natsoulas Gallery, Davis, CA, curated by Edward Lucie-Smith (catalog).

2005 Technological Sublime, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, curated by Lisa Tamaris-Becker (catalog).

2004 Material Matters, Fosdick-Nelson Gallery, Alfred University, Alfred, NY

2004 Monument Recall: Public Memory and Public Spaces, Camera Work, San Francisco, CA, curated by Paule Levine (catalog-special issue of Camera Work Journal).

2004 Process, Dorsky Gallery, Long Island City, NY, curated by Chandra Cerrito (catalog).

2004 Topographies, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA and Pasadena Museum of Contemporary Art, Pasadena, CA (catalog), curated by Karen Moss.

2004 The Snow Show, collaboration with Diller + Scofidio, Remi Finland,

2003 The Snow Show Drawings, Venice Art Biennale, Venice, Italy

2001 Fluency, Alfred University, Alfred, NY (catalog)

2000 Bounded Intervals, Detroit Artists Market, Detroit, MI (catalog)

2000 New Prometheans, COCA and University of Washington, Seattle, WA

2000 Open House: Art on Site 1, 362 Waller St., San Francisco, CA (brochure, video catalog)

2000 hunt, Old Church Cultural Center, Demarest, NJ

2000 terra sacâre, Puffin Room, New York, NY

1998 MATRIX/Berkeley: 20 Years, University Art Museum, UCB, Berkeley, CA (catalog)

1997 The Nature of Materials, Lance Fung Gallery, New York, NY

1996 Photoscene Cologne, EAC—Versuchsreihe, Cologne, Germany

1995 Facing Eden: 100 Years of Landscape Art in the Bay Area, M. H. De Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, CA (catalog).

1994 Color in the Shadows, Bay Area Cyber Art, CCAC, Oakland, CA (catalog).

1992 Fragile Ecologies: Artist’s Interpretations And Solutions, Queens Museum Of Art, Queens, NY, (traveling exhibit, book).

1991 Constructions Of Meaning, Illinois State University, Normal, IL, (catalog).

1989 The Boat Show, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.

1989 Eco-Systems, Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, Santa Barbara, CA.

1986 Second Newport Biennial: The Bay Area, Newport Harbor Museum, Newport Beach, CA (catalog).

1982 Nature as Metaphor, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA (catalog).

1982 Six Artists, Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA.

1978 Landscape, New Views, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.

1975 OK Art, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH, (catalog).

1975 Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, NY, NY (catalog).

Awards:

2008-09Bernard Osher Fellowship, Exploratorium, San Francisco, CA

2002 Art Commission Award for Excellence in Design, NY Art Commission (with Werner Klotz)

1990 Visual Arts Award, California Arts Council

1986 Visual Arts Award, National Endowment for the Arts

1983 Fellowship, John Simon Guggenheim Foundations

1980 Visual Arts Award, National Endowment for the Arts

1977 Visual Arts Award, National Endowment for the Arts

Collections (Selected):

National Museum of American Art, Washington, DC

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA

De Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, CA

Redevelopment Agency, City of San Francisco, CA

Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA

University Art Museum, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA

Newport Harbor Museum, Newport Beach, CA

Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA

Lannon Foundation, Palm Beach, FL

Mint Museum, SC

Cornell University, Ithica, NY

University of Arizona, Tuscon, AZ

University of Washington, Seattle, WA

Weisman Museum, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN

University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, NV

Viart Corporation

Hootkin Collection, New York, NY

Rene deRosa Collection, Napa, CA

Design Team/Collaboration Experience:

2006-11 Oakland Estuary Channel Project, with Lewis deSoto and Sasaki & Associates, Oakland, CA

2002-4 The Snow Show, Kemi, Finland, with Liz Diller and Rick Scofidio, NY, an exhibition of 40 artist/architect collaborative teams constructing snow and ice architecture.

2001-11 SITE INDEX, College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, collaboration with Rebecca Krinke of the UMN Department of Architecture and Landscape Architecture.

2001-04 The Middle of the World, art design for Staten Island Ferries/New Kennedy Class, NYC, NY, with the German artist, Werner Klotz.

1999 Blue Portal, 880 Underpass, Oakland, CA, project finalist with Dan Dodt, electrical engineer and owner, Dodt Electrical, San Francisco, CA.

1993 Deep Gradient/Suspect Terrain, Yerba Buena Gardens, San Francisco, CA, with MGA Partners Architects, San Francisco Redevelopment Agency.

1992 Sears Business Park, Chicago, IL, project finalist With Homart Development, Co, Johnson, Johnson & Roy, ASLA, and other artists.

1992 Fragment: The Hidden Sea (Island Of Refuge), Stanford University, Stanford, CA, with Tom Richman and Associates, ASLA. Process included design charettes with the Stanford community.

1991 Embarcadero Promenade, San Francisco, CA, project finalist with Ed Haag and Associates, ASLA.

1987 Inspiration Point, Newport Harbor, CA, project finalist with George Hargraves and Associates, ASLA.

1987 Todos Santos Park, Concord, CA, project finalist with George Hargraves and Associates, ASLA.

1986 Isla De Umunnum (Island of the Hummingbirds), Elkhorn Slough National Esturine Reserve, Moss Landing, CA. A collaboration with artist, Heather McGill, reserve scientists, CA Department of Fish and Game and local native plant societies.

1986 Candlestick Point Recreation Area, San Francisco, CA, artist/landscape architect design team for master plan of park development and integrated individual projects. With Martha Swartz, ASLA, California State Park personnel and other artists.

Bibliography (Selected):

Albright, Thomas, Art of the San Francisco Bay Area, University of California Press, 1984.

Baker, Kenneth, Greenhouse Sinks into the Sea, San Francisco Chronicle, July 17, 1987, pg. 85.

Baker, Kenneth, Sculptor John Roloff at Paule Anglim, San Francisco Chronicle, Jan. 18, 1992, pg. C5.

Baker, Kenneth, Topographies at SFAI, Galleries, San Francisco Chronicle, May 1, 2004.

Becker, Lisa Tamaris, John Roloff: Displacements, solo exhibition catalog, J. M. Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI, 2000.

Becker, Lisa Tamaris, Fluency, three-person exhibition catalog, Alfred University, Alfred, NY, 2001

Berkson, Bill, John Roloff, University Art Museum, Artforum, Nov. 1987, pg. 144.

Boettger, Suzann, John Roloff, San Rafael, Artforum, Jan. 1983.

Crohn, Jennifer F., John Roloff, Arts Magazine, April, 1992, pg. 79.

Dyckhoff, Tom, In a Winter Wonderland, London Times, Features, February, 10, 2004.

Ebony, David, David Ebony’s Top Ten, John Roloff at Lance Fung, artnet.com, November 1999

Elizalde-Holler, Susan, Monumental Opportunities, Ceramic Art/Public Art, The NCECA Journal 2002, v. XXIII, NCECA, Erie, Co, 2003, pg. 31-37.

Higuchi, Shoichiro, John Roloff, Shotenkenchiku, No. 6, 1990, pg. 296-97.

Higuchi, Shoichiro, Yerba Buena Gardens, Nikkei Architecture, 7-18, 1994, pg. 218-219.

Johnson, Ken, Art in Review, John Roloff, Morphology of Change, NY Times, November 26, 1999, pg. B 39.

Kino, Carol, John Roloff at Lance Fung, Art in America, May, 2000, pg. 163.

Lacy, Suzanne, Mapping the Terrain: New Genre Public Art, Bay Press, Seattle, WA, 1995, pg. 269-270.

Lewallyn, Constance, John Roloff, “2nd Newport Biennial: The Bay Area,” Exhibition Catalog, Newport Harbor Art Museum, 1986.

Lewallyn, Constance, John Roloff, Matrix Catalog No. 110, University Art Museum, University Of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 1987.

Lewallyn, Constance, Facing Eden: 100 Years of Landscape Art in The Bay Area, De Young Museum Press, 1995.

Matilsky, Barbara C., Fragile Ecologies, Contemporary Artist’s Interpretations and Solutions, Rizzoli pub., NY, NY, pg. 57, 104-107.

Morgan, Robert, John Roloff’s Rising Sea, catalog essay, Museum of Contemporary Art, Lake Worth, FL, 1998.

Morris, Gay, John Roloff at Paule Anglim, Art in America, April, 1992, pg. 168.

Oni, Toshiyasu, Bijutsu Techo, December, 1985, pg. 175.

Radford, Warren and Georgia, "Outdoor Sculpture in San Francisco, A Heritage of Public Art," 2002, pg. 149-152.

Rapoport, Sonia, Color in the Shadows: Bay Area Cyber Art, Leonardo, Vol. 28, No. 1, 1995, Reviews, pg. 77-78.

Riding, Alan, The White Stuff, The New York Times, Art/Architecture, Sunday, February 29, 2004, pg 26-27.

Rosser, Phyllis, Making Trouble, High Performance, Winter 1994, pg. 18-21.

Schwan, Gary, Ecological Mediation Reconciles Art, Science, Palm Beach Post, Nov. 27, 1998, pg. 37 Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American Art, Bullfinch Press, 1995, pg. 238.

Webster, Mary Hull, A Conversation with Steven A. Nash and Constance Lewallen, Curators, ‘Facing Eden,’ Artweek, June 1995, pg.15-16.

Published Writings:

Ceramics: Geologic Lens-Systemic Practice, International Ceramic Symposium - Ceramics & Ecology Catalog, World Ceramic Exposition Foundation, Icheon, Republic of Korea, 2009, pg 38-42.

Devonian Shale: Aquifer I, limited edition of 4 books, Fractal Terror Press, Oakland, CA, 2001

Devonian Shale: Aquifer I, The NCECA Journal 2002, v. XXIII, NCECA, Erie, CO, 2003, pg. 38-40.

Expanded Landscapes: NCECA Journal 2009, NCECA Publications, Vol. 30, pg. 36-37, 114.

Kiln Projects, Artery Magazine, February/March, 1983, pg. 6.

Making the Connection, San Francisco Art Institute Magazine, summer, 2005, pg. 10-11.

Organic Logic, New Observations Magazine, #127, New York, NY, co-editor with Mark Bartlett, fall/winter 2000

Project: Oculus, Gallery Paule Anglim and FractalTerror Press, Oakland, CA, 2009

Untitled Essay, Ten Years Later, exhibition, catalog, CSU, Fullerton, Fullerton, CA, 1987

Untitled Essay, 51 Million BTU’s, documentation catalog, 1990.

Lectures, Panels, Visiting Artist Positions (Selected):

2010 The Sea Within the Land, v1.1, Ohio University, Athens, OH (public lecture)

2010 The Sea Within the Land, v1.0, University of Akron, Akron, OH (public lecture)

2010 Synapse Charrette on Water, Synapse Center for Art and Science, University of Akron, Akron, OH (visiting artist)

2010 Sculpture, Society and Environment, International Sculpture Center, 2010 Conference: What is Sculpture in the 21st Century, London, UK (public lecture and panel)

2010 Transformative Processes in Environmental Art, KALA, Berkeley, CA (public lecture and panel)

2009 Sonoma State University, Rhonert Park, CA (public lecture)

2009 University of California, Davis, Davis, CA (visiting artist, public lecture)

2009 5^th International Ceramic Symposium - Ceramics & Ecology, Icheon, Republic of Korea (lecture and panel)

2009 Perils in the Sublime, NCECA Conference, Phoenix, AZ (lecture and panel)

2009 Meeting of the Minds Series, Exploratorium, San Francisco, CA

2008 Exploratorium, San Francisco, CA (Osher Fellowship lecture)

2008 CSSSA, CalArts, Valencia (visiting artist/workshop, public lecture)

2007 UC Santa Barbara, Media Arts and Technology and Art Dept., (visiting artist, lecture at both venues)

2008 Exploratorium, San Francisco, CA (lecture, Ft Mason, NSF Grant project consultant/commission)

2007 Exploratorium, San Francisco, CA, (consultant for new facility at Pier 15/17)

2007 California College of the Arts, Object Agents: Contemporary Sculpture and the Social Life of Objects (public lecture, Ceramics Program lecture)

2007 SFAI Faculty Colloquium, Paradise Reconsidered (colloquium presentation/lecture)

2006 University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska (visiting artist, lecture)

2006 High 5 Respite, deYoung Museum, San Francisco, CA (panel, lecture)

2006 Mills College, Oakland, CA (lecture)

2005 Stanford University, Stanford, CA, (lecture, visiting artist)

2005 University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, Tech Sublime Symposium (panel)

2004 University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, CALA, site work ground-breaking (lecture)

2003 Washington University, St. Louis, MO (lecture, visiting artist)

2004 The Snow Show Symposium, University of Lapland, Rovaniemi, Finland (panel)

2002 CCAC, Dept. of Architecture, (visiting critic)

2002 University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, CALA building opening (lecture, exhibition)

2002 UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA (lecture)

2002 NCECA Conference, Kansas City, MO (panel)

2001 University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN (lecture)

2001 California State University, San Francisco (lecture)

2000 University of Washington, Seattle, WA (lecture, New Prometheans)

2000 California State University, Fresno (lecture)

2000 Albequerque Academy (lecture)

1999 University of Washington (lecture)

1998 University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT (lecture)

1997 Re-inventing the Terrain, CSU Monterey Bay, Seaside, CA (lecture, visiting artist, panel)

1996 Moltkerei Werkstadtt, Organic Logic, Cologne, Germany, (lecture)

1996 Carnige Mellon University, Pittsburg, PA (lecture)

1996 CCAC, Oakland, CA (artist symposium)

1996 Pitzer College, Claremont CA, (visiting artist)

1994 Public Art, Anderson Ranch, Aspen, CO (visiting artist)

1994 Color in the Shadows, Bay Area Cyber Art, CCAC, Oakland, CA (artist panel)

1993 Eve Laramee and John Roloff, CCAC, Oakland, CA (joint lecture)

1993 Yerba Buena Gardens, San Francisco, CA (artist panel)

1992 Tyler School of Art, Elkins Park, PA (visiting artist)

1991 Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA (lecture)

1991 Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA (lecture)

1974 To 1991: 75+ lectures, panels or visiting artist positions.

Represented By:

Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA