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b. 1977, Lancaster, PA
Tim Roda’s art career began at Pennsylvania State University, graduating in 2002 with a BFA. He received his MFA in 2004 from the University of Washington, Seattle. There his work developed a language that casually travels within arenas of installation, photography, and performance. The props or devices he includes in the images are made of paper, wood, tape, and clay, often used for their disposable or re-usable nature. He uses photography, not for the love of the technical aspects of the medium, but because of its properties, both abstract and physical, which best depict his vision of life and art. Roda is represented by the Greg Kucera Gallery in Seattle, WA; Gasser Grunert in New York, NY; Daniel Cooney Fine Art in New York, NY; Galerie Michael Janssen in Berlin, Germany; Nasim Weiler Contemporary in Hamburg, Germany; and the Angell Gallery in Toronto, Canada. In 2008, he was awarded a Fulbright Award to study photography in Italy. He was also awarded a Kennedy Artist in Residence Award at the University of South Florida during the spring of 2012. His work is in the following public collections; Bard College Museum, Hessel Foundation (New York, NY); The Rose Museum, Brandeis University (Waltham, MA); Seattle Art Museum and the Henry Art Museum (Seattle, WA); Museum of Fine Arts (Houston, TX); Museum of Contemporary Photography (Chicago, IL); Essl Museum, (Klosterneuburg Austria); and the Centro Cultural Andratx (Mallorca). Roda has taught art for the Brooklyn Arts Center, New York University, Purchase College (SUNY), Hofstra University, University of Washington & Pennsylvania College of Art and Design.
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“I started using photography because of its properties, both abstract and physical. It is the only medium I can use to best depict my vision of life, art and time.
Although the final product is a photograph, the work casually travels within arenas of installation, photography, film and performance. A camera is used to record one moment in time that balances between childhood memories and constructed commentaries, yet is a documentation of “real” events for my wife, Allison, and children. While setting up the photograph, I compel the viewer to consider the different actor’s vantage points within the scene, physically and psychologically. In this way, I ask the viewer to participate by connecting their own personal history to the work, which I have found either repels the viewer or draws them in.
Every scene that has been created was first envisioned in my mind and then played out by my family. Although we are the immediate subjects, the work is filled with metaphorical reverberations of my family history and my memories of childhood. The props or devices I include in the installation–photocopies, wood, tape and unfired clay–are important to my work because they are all materials that are impermanent and contrast historical works.
My son’s ever-present, central role in the work serves as an identifiable entry point for the audience. Allison’s role is to photograph the work, though she occasionally appears in the images. Over time, we have developed an unspoken language intuiting my vision of art.
Although the overall quality of the print comes across as visceral, the “content” of the image has always been the most important quality of the photograph. Overall, the photographs capture moments of ambiguity so that the work can be understood in several layers. I strive to produce a sensation that makes people both familiar and uneasy about the incongruence of life’s experiences.
Technically, I could print what most photographers would consider to be a perfect picture, but I would consider that to weaken my personal vision. Instead of using filters, flashy tricks or the theory of gray scale to enhance or alter the image, I choose instead to document the actual moment that occurred when the camera shutter closed. I have decided that it is more important for me to be myself and approach techniques and materials the way I do rather than jeopardize the integrity of my art by conforming to existing standards.”
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Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR
Whatcom Art Museum, Bellingham, WA
Centro Cultural Andratx, Mallorca, Spain
Bard College Museum, Hessel Foundation, New York, NY
The Rose Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA
Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL
Essl Collection, Klosterneuburg, Austria
Museum of Contemporary Art, Houston, TX
Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA
Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts, Helena, MT
Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, WA
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The Butcher’s Block Nasim Weiler Contemporary & Galerie Anita Beckers, Hamburg, Germany
An Overview of Works by Tim Roda Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle, Washington
Cooperations Ferenbalm-gurbrustation, Karlsruhe, Germany
Games of Antiquities Gasser Grunert, New York, NY
Famiglia Lavenderia / Family Laundry Angell Gallery, Toronto Canada
Family Album Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle, WA
Family Matters Daniel Cooney FIne Art, New York, NY
Make Believe Galerie Michael Janssen, BerlIn, Germany
New Works Baer Ridgway Exhibitions, San Francisco, CA
Fragments Art Agents Gallery, Art Forum Berlin Fair, BerlIn, Germany
Living Large Art Agents Gallery, Hamburg, Germany
Family Album Angell Gallery, Toronto, Canada
Fragments Art Agents Gallery, Next Fair, Chicago, IL
Photographs Ferenbalm-gurbrustation, Karlsruhe, Germany
Photographs Gasser & Grunert, New York, NY
Limited Edition Chashama Artist & Residence Program, Harlem, NY
Family Matters Charleston Heights Art Center Gallery, Las Vegas, NV
Family Album Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL
Fragments Texas State University, San Marcos, TX
Family Matters Art Agents Gallery, Hamburg, Germany
New Works Angell Gallery, Toronto, Canada
Collaborations Ohio State University, Columbus, OH
Photographs Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle, WA
Photographs Gasser & Grunert, New York, NY
Photographs Eastern Washington University, Spokane, WA
Exit Show Archie Bray Foundation, Helena, MT
Documentational Studies Louise Jones Brown Gallery, Duke University, Durham, NC
Family Album Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle, WA
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Return to the Viewer:
Selected Art Reviews
by Matthew Kangas
*featured
Midmarch Arts Press
New York NY 2011
Art Practice As Research
Inquiry in Visual Arts, 2nd Edition
by Dr. Graeme Sullivan
*featured
SAGE Publications
London UK 2010
Confrontational Ceramics
by Judith S. Schwartz
*featured
University of Pennsylvania Press
Philadelphia PA 2008
a look in the mirror:
deconstruction & reconstruction of the family experience
Velocity Printing
Lancaster PA 2008
Contemporary Photography
from the Essl Collection
“Telling Stories”
*featured
Foto.Kunst, Essl Museum
Vienna Austria 2007
The Family Experience
*featured
Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts
Tallahassee FL 2006
4th Annual Photography Biennial
*featured
East Carolina University Press
Greenville SC 2005
The Figure in Clay
*featured
Larks Books: A Division of Sterling Publishing
New York NY 2005
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Uncanny Congruences Palmer Museum of Art University Park, Pennsylvania
Polish Biennale 2012 Poland
YOUNGER Daniel Cooney Fine Art, New York, NY
Artist As Performer Houston Center For Photography, Houston, TX
Pulp Fiction$ – Works On and From Paper Galerie Fgs, Karlsruhe, Germany
Borderline Pleasure Curated by Ferenbalm-gurbrustation Michael Janssen Galerie, Berlin, Germany
Wild Signals, Artistic Positions Between Symptom and Analysis Württembergischer, KunstvereIn, Stuttgar, Germany
Leinzell Open 2008, Silvia und Helmut Wickleder Stiftung Schloss Leinzell, Leinzell, Germany
Video Kitchen Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle, WA
Photography Biennial Nine to Watch Whatcom Museum of Art, Seattle, WA
Foto.kunst Vorläufiger Arbeitstitel Essl Museum, Vienna, Austria
Coercive Atmospherics D.U.M.B.O. Art Center, Brooklyn, NY
Made in Seattle Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA
Deconstruction and Reconstruction: The Family Experience Museum of Fine Arts, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL
Fourth Photography Image Biennial Exhibition Wellington B. Gray Art Gallery, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC
Perchance to Dream Ohio Craft Museum, Columbus, OH
Perchance to Dream Society For Contemporary Craft, Pittsburgh, PA
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Centro Cultural Andratx – Mallorca, Spain (2008, 2013)
Kennedy Artist in Residence, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL (2012)
Chashama – Studio Space, New York City, Harlem (2007-08)
The Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation (Tribeca), New York, NY (2005-06)
Villa Della Cupa – Free Studio Space, Umbria, Italy (2006)
Archie Bray Foundation Artist Residency, Helena, MT (2004-2005)
Haystack Mountain School of Crafts With Arthur Gonzalez (2001)
Fulbright Award to Italy, Institute of International Education
(Visual Arts, Photography)
MFA, University of Washington, Seattle
BFA, Pennsylvania State University
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