Shalom Gorewitz

Biography

Bringing a painterly, poetic aesthetic to his distinctive image-processing techniques, Shalom Gorewitz uses the electronic medium to create introspective visions, transforming recorded reality through an expressionistic manipulation of images and sound. Pulsating with vibrant color and kinetic motion, his richly textured, densely layered collages evoke both "apocalypse and rapture," as he confronts the political conflicts, personal losses, and spiritual rituals of contemporary life.

Naturalistic images recorded with a consumer quality camcorder are transformed by Gorewitz into evocative dreams or nightmares, as he explores the expressive potential of low-end imaging devices such as the Fairlight CVI, Amiga, and Macintosh computers in an "active, physical experience." Gorewitz's canvas is broad; he records a multi-cultural mosaic of urban and pastoral landscapes, from New York City's South Bronx and the American South to Jamaica, Morocco, and Israel. He filters his themes through a subjective analysis, creating moments of haunting beauty or menace as metaphorical visual expressions. Personal symbolism and social consciousness are inextricably intertwined in Gorewitz's unique visions, which resonate with an underlying spiritual, almost mystical power.

In addition to ongoing work with video, he is producing digital prints and work created specifically for the World Wide Web.

Gorewitz was born in 1949. He received a B.F.A. from the California Institute of the Arts, where he studied with Nam June Paik, Dick Higgins and Allan Kaprow; and an M.F.A. from Antioch International University. The 1989 recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Gorewitz has also received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts. He was an artist in residence at the Experimental Television Center, Owego, New York, from 1978-93, and was artist-in-residence at the Beersheva Institute of Art in Jerusalem. A professor of Multimedia Arts at Ramapo College, New Jersey for more than twenty years, he was dean of the School of Contemporary Arts from 1991-98 and is now convenor (chair) of the visual arts program while continuing to teach studio courses and seminars relating to electronic media. He has also taught at the University of Bridgeport and Hofstra University. Gorewitz's work is in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and the Reina Sofia, Madrid, among others. His work has been exhibited internationally, at festivals and institutions including the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh; Whitney Museum of American Art Biennial Exhibition, New York; Jewish Museum, New York; Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn; and the Kowasaki Museum, Tokyo. His work has been featured on National Public Television, the Learning Channel, the USA Cable Network, and many regional PBS stations. He lives in New York City.