Robert Stivers
Bio
Robert Stivers came to photography through the world of dance, which he performed professionally until he suffered a serious back injury. Restricted by the types of movements he could do, Stivers decided to choreograph his own pieces, allowing him to explore how his spine moved. Around the same time, he started using a camera to document his performances, often creatingmovements specifically for the camera. Soon after, Stivers starting filming his danceswith a Super-8 camera, transferring the filmto video, then photographing the monitor. The result of this elaborate process is a series of images where figures float in total darkness and limbs appear to exist without a body attached. These are soft, unfocused images aboutmemory, birth, longevity, eroticismand the threads that link all people together.
In his newest work, Stivers continues to examine altered vision through highly saturated Cibachrome prints, creating heightened layers of reality. A new born baby cries in a field of blue fluid, an outstretched arm and hand moves towards the viewer in a field of metallic green and a group of dogs stand in a crimson field, their silhouettes abstracted by the camera lens. The colors presented are both fantastic and surreal–a combination of seduction and apprehension.
Robert Stivers
1953 Born November 17th Palo Alto, CA
1976 B.A., University of California Irvine, California
1981 M.A.,NewYork UniversityNewYork
Selected Exhibitions
2003 ModernismSan Francisco, CA
2002 Paris Photo, Paris, France
2001 BrooklynMuseumof Art, Brooklyn, NY
2001 Chiaroscuro Gallery, Santa Fe,NM
2001 Fahey/Klein, Los Angeles,USA
2001 'Myths andTales,' OMC Gallery for Contemporary Art, Dusseldorf, Germany
2000 Modernism, San Francisco, CA
2000 Catherine Edelman Gallery Chicago
2000 ExponeraMalmo, Sweden
2000 Throckmorton Fine Art Inc NY
2000 MessineoWyman Project NY
1999 The Presence of Absence,Turner Carroll Gallery Santa Fe,NM
1999 The Nude in Contemporary Art,The AldrichMuseumof Contemporary Art Ridgefield, CT
1998 Formication: A Pageant of Insects in PhotographicWorks, LaurenceMiller Gallery , NY
1998 Turner Gallery Santa Fe, NM
1997 Peter Fetterman Los Angeles, CA
1997 Listening to Cement,Museumof NewMexico,Museumof Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM
1997 The State of the Question,Museumof NewMexico,Museumof Fine Arts Santa Fe, NM
1997 Yancey Richardson Gallery NY
1996 CreativeTime, , Gagosian Gallery NY
1996 International Small Drawing,Turner Carroll Gallery Santa Fe, NM
1996 Lesson No.17,Turner Carroll Gallery Santa Fe,NM
1996 ACTA International Associazione Culturale Rome, Italy
1995 Large Bodies, Pace/MacGill GalleryNewYork
1995 Forms II,The PlatinumGallery, Invitational exhibition Santa Fe, NM
1994 Eros&Identity, Stuart Levy Gallery, Invitational Exhibition Stuart Levy Gallery, NY
1994 Animalia, Galerie Pons Paris, France
1993 Throckmorton Fine Arts Santa Fe,NM
1992 The Eliot Porter Benefit Exhibition,The NewMexico Council on Photography Santa Fe,NM
1990 Photgraphy Center, First Biennial Juried Exhibitio Los Angeles, CA
Literature
2006 Twin Palms,Monograph,Sanctum, Robert Stivers
2003 Channel Photographics,Monograph, Sestina, Robert Stivers
2000 Arena Editions,Monograph, Listenting to Cement, R. Stivers
1997 Arena Editions,Monograph, Photographs, R. Stivers
© Robert Stivers