Stephen Laub (born 1945) is an American artist who works in performance, video, and sculpture.

Education

Laub received both his undergraduate and master's degrees at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

studying under artists such as

Peter Voulkos Peter Voulkos (born Panagiotis Harry Voulkos; 29 January 1924 – 16 February 2002) was an American artist of Greek descent. He is known for his abstract expressionist ceramic sculptures, which crossed the traditional divide between ceramic ...

Arnaldo Pomodoro Arnaldo Pomodoro (born 23 June 1926) is an Italian sculptor. He was born in Morciano, Romagna, and lives and works in Milan. His brother, Giò Pomodoro (1930–2002) was also a sculptor. Pomodoro designed a controversial fiberglass crucifix fo ...

Mark di Suvero Marco Polo di Suvero (born September 18, 1933, in Shanghai, China), better known as Mark di Suvero, is an abstract expressionist sculptor and 2010 National Medal of Arts recipient. Biography Early life and education Marco Polo di Suvero was bor ...

William T. Wiley William Thomas Wiley (October 21, 1937April 25, 2021) was an American artist. His work spanned a broad range of media including drawing, painting, sculpture, film, performance, and pinball. At least some of Wiley's work has been referred to as ...

, and Jim Melchert.Lewallen, Constance and Moss, Karen. ''State of Mind: New California Art circa 1970.'' Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011. Page 88. At Berkeley, he studied painting with

David Hockney David Hockney (born 9 July 1937) is an English painter, draftsman, printmaker, stage designer, and photographer. As an important contributor to the pop art movement of the 1960s, he is considered one of the most influential British artists o ...

. As a student, he was associated with Bay Area artists

Theresa Hak Kyung Cha Theresa Hak Kyung Cha ( ko, 차학경; March 4, 1951 – November 5, 1982) was an American novelist, producer, director, and artist of South Korean origin, best known for her 1982 novel, ''Dictee''. Considered an avant-garde artist, Cha w ...

Terry Fox Terrance Stanley Fox (July 28, 1958 June 28, 1981) was a Canadian athlete, humanitarian, and cancer research activist. In 1980, with one leg having been amputated due to cancer, he embarked on an east-to-west cross-Canada run to raise money ...

Howard Fried Howard Fried (born June 14, 1946, in Cleveland, Ohio) is an American conceptual artist who became known in the 1970s for his pioneering work in video art, performance art, and installation art. He lives and works in Vallejo, California. Biography ...

, and

Paul Kos Paul Joseph Kos (born December 23, 1942) is an American conceptual artist and educator, he is one of the founders of the Bay Area Conceptual Art movement in California. Kos incorporates video, sound and interactivity into his sculptural installa ...

.Eds. Loeffler, Carl E. and Tong, Darlene. ''Performance Anthology: Source Book of California Performance Art.'' San Francisco: Contemporary Arts Press, 1989. Page 139. Between 1964 and 1966, he studied performance with

Étienne Decroux Étienne Decroux (19 July 1898 in Paris, France – 12 March 1991 in Boulogne-Billancourt, France) was a French actor who studied at Jacques Copeau's École du Vieux-Colombier, where he saw the beginnings of what was to become his life's obsess ...

in Paris.

Performance

In Laub's early performance work such as ''Relations'' (1970) the artist used projections and mirrors to insert himself into a historical photograph, merging his gestures and features with that of the person depicted. Other performances include ''Constellations'' (1975)'','' a series commissioned by 112 Greene Street, NY. In the 1970s, Laub performed at venues such as 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 ...

,Eds. Loeffler, Carl E. and Tong, Darlene. ''Performance Anthology: Source Book of California Performance Art.'' San Francisco: Contemporary Arts Press, 1989. Page 319. the

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), ...

White Columns White Columns is New York City’s oldest alternative non-profit art space. White Columns is known as a showcase for up-and-coming artists, and is primarily devoted to emerging artists who are not affiliated with galleries. All work submitted is ...

The Kitchen The Kitchen is a non-profit, multi-disciplinary avant-garde performance and experimental art institution located at 512 West 19th Street, between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It was founde ...

, the Museum of Conceptual Art, and the

Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art The Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art (LAICA) was an exhibition venue for visual arts that ran between 1974 and 1987 (approximately) in Los Angeles, California. It played an important role in showing experimental work of the era as well as ...

.Eds. Loeffler, Carl E. and Tong, Darlene. ''Performance Anthology: Source Book of California Performance Art.'' San Francisco: Contemporary Arts Press, 1989. Page 263. Series such as ''Bodies of Water'' (1970–73) have been documented in art publications such as ''Avalanche'' and ''WET: The Magazine of Gourmet Bathing''.

Video

In the 1980s Laub began making video works also using the techniques of projection. Some had political overtones, such as ''White Food'' (1980) in which A U.S. Navy film about a battle in Vietnam is projected onto a series of white foods that make up a complete meal. The camera pans each course of the meal to reveal stages of the developing battle, from the hors d'oeuvres, progressing through the entree, and concluding with the dessert. ''White Food'' was exhibited at the 1984 Venice Biennale. Laub's video work is included in the permanent collections of several major museums in the United States, including The

, The

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art, and was ...

, The

Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA, formerly abbreviated as BAM/PFA) are a combined art museum, repertory movie theater, and archive associated with the University of California, Berkeley. Lawrence Rinder was Director from ...

, and the

Addison Gallery of American Art The Addison Gallery of American Art is an academic museum dedicated to collecting American art, organized as a department of Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. History Directors of the gallery include Bartlett H. Hayes, Jr. (1940– ...

.http://accessaddison.andover.edu/PRT0*?rec=2&sid=1553&x=11253704

Sculpture

In the 1980s, Laub began making sculpture and was represented by Koury Wingate Gallery in New York. His works in series such as ''Gold'' (1987-1989) and ''Silver'' (1989-1991) used wood coated in gold and silver leaf to create icons of common objects which framed historical photos, giving the object a new politically-charged meaning. His sculptures have been shown in the

Indianapolis Museum of Art The Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA) is an encyclopedic art museum located at Newfields, a campus that also houses Lilly House, The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park: 100 Acres, the Gardens at Newfields, the Beer Garden, and more. It i ...

, the

Akron Art Museum The Akron Art Museum is an art museum in Akron, Ohio, United States. The museum first opened on February 1, 1922, as the Akron Art Institute. It was located in two borrowed rooms in the basement of the public library. The Institute offered clas ...

, the Parrish Art Museum,http://artists.parrishart.org/index.php/Detail/Entity/Show/entity_id/869 The

Guild Hall of East Hampton Guild Hall of East Hampton in the incorporated Village of East Hampton on Long Island's East End, is one of the United States' first multidisciplinary cultural institutions. Opened in 1931, it was designed by architect Aymar Embury II and inclu ...

, and the

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, or VMFA, is an art museum in Richmond, Virginia, United States, which opened in 1936. The museum is owned and operated by the Commonwealth of Virginia. Private donations, endowments, and funds are used for the su ...

, among others.Ed. Day, Holliday T. ''Power: Its Myths and Mores in American art, 1961-1991.'' Indianapolis: Indianapolis Museum of Art, 1991. Pages 59-61. Laub's sculptures are in the permanent collection of the

Yale University Art Gallery The Yale University Art Gallery (YUAG) is the oldest university art museum in the Western Hemisphere. It houses a major encyclopedic collection of art in several interconnected buildings on the campus of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. ...

Context

Laub's work is considered important in the

Conceptual Art Conceptual art, also referred to as conceptualism, is art in which the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic, technical, and material concerns. Some works of conceptual art, sometimes called insta ...

movement in California in the 1970s, alongside figures such as

Chris Burden Christopher Lee Burden (April 11, 1946 – May 10, 2015) was an American artist working in performance, sculpture and installation art. Burden became known in the 1970s for his performance art works, including ''Shoot'' (1971), where he arranged ...

John Baldessari John Anthony Baldessari (June 17, 1931 – January 2, 2020) was an American conceptual artist known for his work featuring found photography and appropriated images. He lived and worked in Santa Monica and Venice, California. Initially a painter, ...

Edward Ruscha Edward Joseph Ruscha IV (, ''roo-SHAY''; born December 16, 1937) is an American artist associated with the pop art movement. He has worked in the media of painting, printmaking, drawing, photography and film. He is also noted for creating severa ...

Lynn Hershman Lynn Hershman Leeson (née Lynn Lester Hershman; born 1941) is a multimedia American artist and filmmaker. Her work combines art with social commentary, particularly on the relationship between people and technology. Leeson is a pioneer in new me ...

Bruce Nauman Bruce Nauman (born December 6, 1941) is an American artist. His practice spans a broad range of media including sculpture, photography, neon, video, drawing, printmaking, and performance. Nauman lives near Galisteo, New Mexico. Life and work ...

Tom Marioni Tom Marioni (born 1937, Cincinnati, Ohio, United States) is an American artist and educator, known for his conceptual artwork. Marioni was active in the emergence of Conceptual Art movement in the 1960s. He founded the Museum of Conceptual Art ( ...

Allan Kaprow Allan Kaprow (August 23, 1927 – April 5, 2006) was an American painter, assemblagist and a pioneer in establishing the concepts of performance art. He helped to develop the "Environment" and "Happening" in the late 1950s and 1960s, as well as ...

, and

.Eds. Marcus, George E. and Myers, Fred R. ''The Traffic in Culture: Refiguring Art and Anthropology.'' Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995. Page 201.Eds. Loeffler, Carl E. and Tong, Darlene. ''Performance Anthology: Source Book of California Performance Art.'' San Francisco: Contemporary Arts Press, 1989. Pages 139; 181.Lewallen, Constance and Moss, Karen. ''State of Mind: New California Art circa 1970.'' Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011. Page 2.Eds. Loeffler, Carl E. and Tong, Darlene. ''Performance Anthology: Source Book of California Performance Art.'' San Francisco: Contemporary Arts Press, 1989. Page 99.Ed. Day, Holliday T. ''Power: Its Myths and Mores in American art, 1961-1991.'' Indianapolis: Indianapolis Museum of Art, 1991. Page 20.Ed. Schimmel, Paul and Mark, Lisa G. ''Under the Big Black Sun: California Art 1974-1981.'' Prestel Publishing, 2011. Pages 25, 274-277, 280. He has exhibited in Europe since the 1970's, where his work has been associated with Actionism in its use of performance, social critique, and address of themes such as war and historical memory.

Personal life

Until 2018, Laub was a Professor of Arts, Culture, and Media at

Rutgers University–Newark Rutgers University–Newark is one of three regional campuses of Rutgers University, New Jersey's State University. It is located in Newark. Rutgers, founded in 1766 in New Brunswick, is the eighth oldest college in the United States and a me ...

. Laub is married to visual artist Claire Watson and lives in Water Mill, NY.Lewallen, Constance and Moss, Karen. ''State of Mind: New California Art circa 1970.'' Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011. Page 260.

Public Collections

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), is an art museum located in the Houston Museum District of Houston, Texas. With the recent completion of an eight-year campus redevelopment project, including the opening of the Nancy and Rich Kinder Build ...

, *

The Watermill Center The Watermill Center is a center for the arts and humanities in Water Mill, New York, founded in 1992 by artist and theater director Robert Wilson. Overview The Watermill Center is "a laboratory for performance" founded by Robert Wilson in 1992 ...

References

External links

* http://www.stephenlaub.net/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Laub, Stephen 1945 births Living people American conceptual artists