Arleen Schloss (born December 12, 1943 in Brooklyn, NY) is a North American performance artist, video/film artist, sound poet, director and curatorSonic Youth: Sensational Fix, p. 514 Publisher: Walther Konig; Har/Com edition (March 1, 2009) of the Downtown New York art, video, performance art and music scenes. Schloss began through A's – an interdisciplinary loft space that became a hub for music, exhibitions, performance art, films and videos. In the 1990s A's became A's Wave where website works and other forms of digital media were shown. Concurrently with A's, Schloss established herself as a curator, co-organizing shows at Danceteria and The Storefront of Art and Architecture, now an architectural venue in New York. Schloss operated as a performance artist in the 1970s. ''The New York Times'' stated that her performances were "superior to much performance art." and the ''SoHo Weekly News'' noted that her voice was "musical the way

Patti Smith Patricia Lee Smith (born December 30, 1946) is an American singer, songwriter, poet, painter and author who became an influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album ''Horses''. Called the "punk poet ...

Yoko Ono Yoko Ono ( ; ja, 小野洋子, Ono Yōko, usually spelled in katakana ; born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art and filmmaking. Ono grew up i ...

are musical."

Life and work

Schloss studied at The Bank Street College of Education, The Art Students League, Parsons School of Design and graduated from New York University. Schloss started her career in the galleries of SoHo and the Lower East Side of Manhattan as a painter and performance artist who performed and showed her work in the U.S., Europe and Asia at venues such as the

Franklin Furnace Franklin Furnace, also known as the Franklin Mine, is a famous mineral location for rare zinc, iron, manganese minerals in old mines in Franklin, New Jersey, United States. This locale produced more species of minerals (over 300) and more differ ...

, Betty Parsons Gallery, Bykert Gallery, Construction Company, Max Hutchinson Gallery in SoHo, Lenbachhaus Galeria in Munich, La Nuit Parcourt La Ceil in Belgium, Cafe Einstein in Berlin, The Kitchen and the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

in New York City. In subsequent years she performed her media opera "A.E.BLA BLA BLA" at Ars Electronica in Austria and was a featured guest on

Willoughby Sharp Willoughby Sharp (January 23, 1936 – December 17, 2008) was an American artist, independent curator, independent publisher (he was co-founder and co-editor of Avalanche Magazine with Liza Béar), gallerist, teacher, author, and telecom activist ...

's Downtown '86, which showcased 1980s performers, artists and musicians. Additionally, during the 1980s, she began to get noticed for her sound poetry work, mostly for the audio piece "How She Sees It By Her." Schloss' sound work is included in two publications and anthologies, "Just Another Asshole," a short-lived no wave art/music/sound art magazine publication published by

Glenn Branca Glenn may refer to: Name or surname * Glenn (name) * John Glenn, U.S. astronaut Cultivars * Glenn (mango) * a 6-row barley variety Places In the United States: * Glenn, California * Glenn County, California * Glenn, Georgia, a settleme ...

and Barbara Ess and "Text-Sound Texts" Edited by

Richard Kostelanetz Richard Cory Kostelanetz (born May 14, 1940) is an American artist, author, and critic. Birth and Education Kostelanetz was born to Boris Kostelanetz and Ethel Cory and is the nephew of the conductor Andre Kostelanetz. He has a B.A. (1962) from ...

. Schloss was awarded an 8mm camera from Canon to experiment with 8mm video. With the camera, she created the travelogue video ''Sun Daze Away'', which showed at Central Park's Summerstage and at various venues in Europe and Asia. In 1990 Schloss directed and produced the video documentary "FromKepler2Cyberspace", with Hi8 equipment loans from Sony. This document featured the pioneers of virtual reality, including Dr.

Marvin Minsky Marvin Lee Minsky (August 9, 1927 – January 24, 2016) was an American cognitive and computer scientist concerned largely with research of artificial intelligence (AI), co-founder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's AI laboratory, ...

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and

Jaron Lanier Jaron Zepel Lanier (, born May 3, 1960) is an American computer scientist, visual artist, computer philosophy writer, technologist, futurist, and composer of contemporary classical music. Considered a founder of the field of virtual reality, La ...

. During the same period, Schloss filmed a series of interviews with John Cage and included those interviews in a series entitled "Windows of Chance/Change."

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its networks division's Kids and Family Group. It ...

, because of her video work and art in dealing with the alphabet and children, hired Schloss in 1989 to direct and produce 15 live video excerpts for the animated TV series

Eureeka's Castle ''Eureeka's Castle'' is an American children's television series created by Debby Beece and Judy Katschke. It originally aired on Nickelodeon's Nick Jr. block from September 4, 1989 to November 10, 1991. The program featured various puppet char ...

, which won a

Cable ACE Award The CableACE Award (earlier known as the ACE Awards; ACE was an acronym for "Award for Cable Excellence") is a defunct award that was given by what was then the National Cable Television Association from 1978 to 1997 to honor excellence in Ame ...

. In the 1990s Schloss continued her work with new forms of art and media. She exhibited her electronic work "Marbelize" at the international digital and technology show at ISEA, in Rotterdam, the Netherlands and showed multimedia work on the digital art, radio and Internet program ArtNetWeb
Art Dirt In-Port Performance 3/25/1997
Schloss received grants, awards and residencies from The Experimental Television Center, Creative Artists Public Service Grant, New York Foundation of the Arts,

Harvestworks Harvestworks is a not-for-profit arts organization located in New York City. It was founded in 1977 by artists supporting the creation and presentation of art works achieved through the use of new technologies. The Harvestworks TEAM Lab (Technology ...

, Allied Productions and the Ford Foundation. She is on the board of Art & Sciences Collaborations Inc, and her work is in the collections of the Fales Library, AT&T, the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art and the Donnell Library. The New York Underground Museum documents her entire work. A documentary about Arleen's life, called

Wednesdays at A's Wednesday is the day of the week between Tuesday and Thursday. According to international standard ISO 8601, it is the third day of the week. In countries which have Friday as their holiday, Wednesday is the fifth day of the week. In countries ...

, is currently in post production. Schloss lives in New York City.

Exhibitions, screenings, films and performances

* "Feet" Interactive Installation, Soho, NYC 1970 * "Fore" Director 16 mm experimental film 1970 * "Words & Music" with musician Jack Smead Bykert Gallery New York 1975 * "SNAP - the making of an Elastic composition" Betty Parsons Gallery New York 1976 * "It's A" live performance Robert Freidus Gallery New York 1976 (also 1977 and 1978) * "A Shot Chance" live performance The Kitchen, New York 1977 * "Its A at MoMa" live Performance, Museum of Modern Art New York 1978 * "How She Sees It" Audio Work Sound Performance, 1979 * "A Shot Chance" Lenbachhaus, Städtische Gallery Munich 1980 * "How She Sees It" (Film Version), Director/Writer/Editor, 1983 * "A. E. Bla Bla Bla" - 24 Hour Media Opera - Ars Electronica Festival, Linz, Austria 1986 * "Glenn Branca Symphony No. 4/Physics" Director/Writer/Editor Videonale, 1984 * "Sun Daze Away" Director/Editor/Writer Central Park Summer Stage, 1989 * "Art Around the Park", Tompkins Square Park, NYC 1992 * "From Kepler 2 Cyberspace: The Pioneers of Virtual Reality," New York 1993 * "Arleen Schloss Retrospective" Städtische Galerie im Butentor Bremen, Germany 1994 * "Nine Dragon Heads", Nature Electronic 2nd International Environmental Festival, Chung Buck, Korea 1997 * "Strange Birds," Group exhibition at Center for Book Arts, NY 2012 * "Arleen Schloss: an evening of Super 8 Film and Hi8 Video," New Museum, 2012 * "Come Closer: Art Around the Bowery," 1969 - 1989, Group exhibition at New Museum, 2012 * "Windows of Chance/Change," (Featuring John Cage) New York No Limits Film Series at the White Box Art Center, NY 2012 * "Art in Flux/Speaking in Tongues," Group Exhibition, New York 2012-2013 * “Coded After Lovelace,” Group Exhibition, White Box Art Center, NY 2014 * “The Printed Room, Works Off Paper” Group Exhibition SALTS Gallery, Switzerland, 2016 * "Archival Showcase" Hauser & Wirth Institute, 2019

Collections

The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum is located in Ridgefield, Connecticut. The Aldrich has no permanent collection and is the only museum in Connecticut that is dedicated solely to the exhibition of contemporary art. The museum presents the first ...

, Ridgefield Connecticut, 1970/72 * Lenbachhaus, Munich, West Germany, 1981 *

Library, New York City, 1982

Awards

* Multi-Media, Soho Tech Award, A's Salon Series, 1980 * ACE Award, The Universe of A, on the making of performance opera, 1987 * ACE Award Manhattan Cable Television, Eureeka's Castle Nickelodeon TV, 1989

References

;Notes

External links