ROBERT R O E S C H

 

Biographical statement

 

Robert Roesch was born in New York State, lives in Philadelphia Pa, and works in a studio in the New Jersey Pinelands.  He is a graduate of Pratt Institute and the State University of New York. Roesch is Chair of Sculpture at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts where He teaches a Sculpture Seminar, Digital Imaging, and is a critic. He is a member of the Philadelphia Art and Architecture Commission. He has received 12 grants, including a Fulbright Specialist Award that brought him to lecture and exhibit throughout Japan in 2006-07 and to represent the United States in the Baku Biennial in 2009. His work is in museum collections Internationally. He has completed 20 major public art projects in the United States including the Gateway to the City of Wichita Kansas  and the entrance to Texas A & M University in Corpus Christi. Together with his wife, artist Suzanne Horvitz, Roesch was the Cultural Advisor to The United States Embassies in Azerbaijan, Egypt, Syria, Argentina, Ecuador, and Myanmar. Their collaborative sculpture “Transduction” is a permanent installation at Grounds For Sculpture in Hamilton, NJ. Roesch was an invited artist in the 2007 and 2009 Biennials in Egypt. He was the guest of the Chinese Government and the Academy of Fine Arts in Hang Zhou, in 2008 where he built a solar powered sculpture for their Westlake area and returned to China in 2010 to complete a second sculpture “Rainwall-a Moment in the Garden” sited in downtown Jiande. Currently He is working on a sited sculpture for Florida Gulf Coast University.

 

Critic Burton Wasserman, in his February, 2010 article in Icon Magazine, (pg 11) calls Roesch, "A seasoned master of a style best described as the abstract sublime…. To feel the vitality of his awesome artistic geometry is to identify with mighty presences at work in the universe at large.  Joined together with a touch of virtuosity, they open existential realms of perception, amplifying rare metaphysical states of dynamic expansion.  They are realities able to plumb the core of one’s innermost sense of contact to the past, the present and the future.  In their own terms, they embody a profound sense of poetry. "

SELECTED PUBLIC COMMISSIONS:

 

2012- “TRANSITION” Awarded by Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers Fla.. installed 01.03.2012

 

2011- “RAINWALL” Public Art Project in Jiande China Awarded by the Government of China.

 

2009 - SHORT LIST FOR AN ENVIRONMENTAL SCULPTURE AT SAN JUAN COLLEGE NM

 

2010 – "TAKEFLIGHT” Public Art Project in Norwich CT. Awarded by the State of CT.

Installation: April 2009

 

2008- "TRANSDUCTION CHINA" Awarded by the Government of China.

Installation:  October, 2008 as a permanent feature in Hangzhou China’s West Lake area.

 

2003 – "MOMENTUM"  Texas A & M, Corpus Christi, Sculptured Entrance to the University

4 acres.  280 feet by 46 feet h  

Part of the sculpture’s design has become the logo for the Texas A&M Corpus Christi campus

 

2002 – "PEACOCK LIGHT RAIL SHELTERS" Horvitz / Roesch Collaboration Awarded by the South Eastern PA Transportation Authority. 

2 shelters of Stainless steel & Bronze. They stand at the entrance of the Philadelphia Zoo.  

 

2002 – "ALCHEMY” FL Atlantic University – three 16-foot stainless steel and corten spires- at the entrance to the Education Building.

Awarded by the State of FL.

 

1998  - "MOONHARP REFLECTING POOL" A sculptured water environment 13 x 60 x 40 feet. 

Awarded by General Instruments Corp, Horsham, PA.                                                                                                    

 

1999 - "ORION PROJECT”, Awarded by the state of NC, a hillside work of lighted pyramids identifying the major stars in the constellation Orion, marking the entrance to the Science and astronomy Complex, NC State Arts,

 

1997 – "WIND SPIRIT GATEWAY" The Gateway to The City of Wichita KS  -ten 16 ft lighted stainless steel spires with two 20 ft. stepped limestone berms, topped by two 18 ft. stainless steel shapes. Awarded by the City of Wichita. 

 

1997 - "WATER-WALL" Brass & Steel, 22ft/16ft/4ft, Beth Israel Medical Center, NYC      

 

1994 - "CATALYST” 13 ft.  12ft x 10 ft. x 80 ft., Tensile supported stainless steel, lighted corten steel &  landscaped areas of wildflowers and river rock .

Computer associates, Pittsburgh, Pa.

Other sited commissioned works Include:

 

PLUNGING BREAKER:                   Atlantic Galman Group, Longport, NJ

Untitled.                                     South Walnut Plaza, Wilmington, DE,

Softly Spoken Words,                  Sanborn Square Park, Boca Raton, FL,

Wave: Lynmark group,                 Suffern, NY,

Untitled, State University of NY,   Farmingdale, NY  

 

 SELECTED CORPORATE AND MUSEUM PURCHASES:

 

PENN MEDICAL CENTER Philadelphia, Pa.

NOYES MUSEUM New Jersey

GROUNDS FOR SCULPTURE New Jersey

PAPER MUSEUM     Tokyo, Japan,   

KYOTO INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY MUSEUM Kyoto, Japan                      

BIBLIOTHECA ALEXANDRIA MUSEUM Alexandria, Egypt

NOVELTY   Philadelphia, Pa.

BENEFICIAL Wilmington, DE

RCA VICTOR   New York, NY

USIA Arts America Washington, DC

A R A TOWER Philadelphia, PA

BANTAM DOUBLEDAY DELL New York, NY

FIDELITY BANK Philadelphia, PA

MARINE MIDLAND BANK New York, NY

METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART Coral Gables, FL

McALLEN INTERNATIONAL MUSEUM McAllen Texas

(Horvitz / Roesch collaboration)

GLASMUSEUM EBELTOFT Denmark

(Horvitz / Roesch collaboration)

WICHITA MUSEUM OF ART Wichita, KS 

RHONE-POULENC RORER INC. Collegeville, PA.

WESTLAKES TRAMMEL CROW CO. Tredyffrin, PA

 

 

SELECTED ONE PERSON EXHIBITIONS:

 

2012 - Gallery HAC Hammonton, NJ

2010 - NOYES MUSEUM Smithville, NJ

2010- Sande Webster Gallery Philadelphia Pa.

2009- Baku Biennial Azerbaijan

2008- Sande Webster Gallery Philadelphia, Pa.

2007- Tera Gallery Kyoto, Japan

2007-  City Arts Wichita KS

2006- Sande Webster Gallery Philadelphia, Pa.

2002  - Moon Gallery, Rome, GA        

2000-2001   -American Cultural Center Gallery Alexandria, Egypt           

1999 - Le Pont Gallery, Aleppo, Syria                       

1999 -  Gallery Amar Latakia Syria, May

1999- Sande Webster Gallery Philadelphia, Pa.

 

 

GRANTS AND AWARDS:

 

2009 Independence foundation grant

Fulbright Senior Specialist Grant to Baku, Azerbaijan

2006 Fulbright Senior Specialist Grant - On the Roster until 2011 

Kyoto Institute of Technology, Kyoto, Japan in 2006.

2001 Cultural Specialist grant U. S. Information Agency to Alexandria, Egypt 

2000 ACULSPEC Grant,  USIA 1 month travel to Damascus and Aleppo, Syria

1998 Cultural Specialist grant U. S. Information Agency to Cairo, Egypt   

1997 Cultural Specialist grant from U. S. Information Agency for travel to Damascus, Syria 3.12.1997 / 3.27.1997

1996 Ford Foundation Grant through the PA Academy of the Fine Arts

1996   Cultural Specialist grant U. S. I A for travel Ecuador and Argentina

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:

 

Philadelphia Art & Architecture Commission, Appointed by Mayor Michael Nutter 2008 to present

PA Academy of the Fine Arts, Professor of Fine Arts from 1983 to present

Chair of Sculpture past 8 years

Cultural Advisor to the US Embassy, Burma, Ecuador, Argentina, Egypt, Syria & Azerbaijan.

Parsons School of Design, NY, NY Instructor of design (4 years)

State University of NY, Farmingdale, NY. Assistant professor (2 years)

Southampton College -Long Island University, NY. Assistant professor (11 years)

 

 

FORMAL STUDY: 

 

Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY - School of Fine Arts BFA

State University of New York, Farmingdale, NY School of Art and Design BA

GALLERY AFFILIATION:

 

Joanne Nerlino Associates, New York, NY 

Sande Webster Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

ARDT Southampton NY