Gregory Steel

Biography Of Gregory Steel
By
Sarah Evilsizor

Gregory Steel was born in Detroit and raised by his maternal grandparents in the Motor City's East Side's richly diverse neighborhoods. From an early age, Steel was encouraged by his grandmother's innovative use of ordinary materials in constructing unique objects and arrangements. Her novel approaches using environmental resources, combined with her support, positively influenced Steel's artistic development. Teaching himself art practice in his spare time, Steel held jobs in various disciplines to support his work. Still, after many years of making art independently, he realized he needed a serious art education.

Attending school part-time and working full-time, Steel received a BFA from The College for Creative Studies in Detroit and an MFA from the University of Michigan. Completing his studies, he took a position at The College for Creative Studies, teaching sculpture and experimental media. Steel is currently an Associate Professor of Fine Arts & New Media at Indiana University Kokomo. Gregory completed his Ph.D. In Philosophy from the Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts. His dissertation is titled, The Sublime: an existential and ontological alliance with mystery.

The art of ideas is fundamental to Steel's working process and is at the heart of his work to date. For Steel, art and life are not separate spheres. Instead, his art is only an extension of who he is and is thus fully integrated into his life. Navigating academic discourse and Modernist and postmodernist dilemmas, Steel soon came to depend on his instinct that art is an internal process. His influences include Joseph Beuys, Allan Kaprow, David Smith, Mark DeSuvero, Anthony Caro, Alice Aycock, Joeseph Wesner, Jay Holland, Isamu Noguchi. Experiencing contemplative objects is foremost in Steel's work. To this end, Steel employs a variety of materials and techniques in his art, including video, object making, digital imaging, book publishing, installation, performance, and innovative technology, as well as traditional sculptural methodologies.

A brush with cancer in 1998 affected his work in many ways that give him a higher focus and sense of urgency to complete his life's work. As an idea artist, he views the various materials he uses as merely a way to fulfill the art's function. Through this diversity, he resists easy categorization. Unable to be pigeonholed and deeply integrated with his life, Steel's artworks are a richly layered and evolving experience. His concerns about the human condition and social change and his hope for humankind are evident regardless of his final product. Whether Steel is collaborating in a groundbreaking physiological monitoring system with Cybernet Systems of Ann Arbor, creating intimate and humorous tableaus replete with miniature figures in outlandish settings, or constructing a monumental steel sculpture, his art emerges as thoughtful and timely. Steel's work has been shown across the United States and Europe, most recently in China, Russia, London, and Barcelona, Spain.

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CURRICULUM VITAE of:

GREGORY STEEL Born: Detroit, MI

EDUCATION

2010-2020 Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts, PhD.
1999-2001 University of Michigan - MFA, Art/New Genres
1990-1998 College for Creative Studies, Detroit, MI - BFA, with honors, Sculpture

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

2012 to Present
Associate Professor of Fine Arts and New Media, Indiana Univ., Kokomo, IN

2008 - 2012
Assistant Professor, Fine Arts, Indiana Univ., Kokomo IN

2005 - 2008
Lecturer in Fine Art/Director of Exhibitions Indiana Univ. Kokomo IN

2002 - 2005
Director of Work exhibition space, School of Art & Design, University of Michigan ArtProTem, Board of Directors

2002
Adjunct Assistant Professor, College for Creative Studies, Detroit, MI (Sculpture and Experimental Media)
ArtProTem, Board of Directors, Ann Arbor, MI

2001
Adjunct Assistant Professor, College for Creative Studies, Detroit, MI, (Sculpture II, Sculpture I and Experimental Media
Lecturer University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Guest Lecturer “Public Art”, Ann Arbor Public Library
Guest Lecturer “Use of Sound as Artistic Media” Ann Arbor Public Library
Guest Lecturer “Video as Art”, Adrian College, Adrian, MI

2000
Guest Lecturer, Center for Creative Studies, Detroit, MI
Michigan Mentorship Program, Mentoring Gifted High School Students
Graduate Student Instructor, Drawing II Teaching Assistant, Figure Drawing, University of Michigan

1999
Teaching Assistant, Drawing II, University of Michigan

1980-1999
Graphic Designer and Photographer, Electronic Data Systems.

1998
June Guest Instructor, Art on the Move Seminars on Sculpture, Welding and Metal Work.

1990-present
Freelance Architectural design utilizing sculptural techniques i.e. casting fabrication etc.

1990-present
Freelance Video Producer/ Editor/ Director, Steel Labs, Carmel and Kokomo, Indiana

1989
Sculpture Studio Tech, Macomb Community College, Mt.Clemens, MI

SELECTED ONE PERSON EXHIBITIONS

2015 Subject Portrait Internet Project, Ongoing
2011 Gregory Steel, “The Sublime 30 Times Per Second”, Galleria Zero, Barcelona Spain
2009 Gregory Steel, Galleria Zero, Barcelona Spain
2006 Gregory Steel, “ Just Asking” Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts, Grand Rapids, MI
Gregory Steel, “ Artifacts” Gallery Penumbra, Indianapolis Indiana
2004 Gregory Steel, Studio23 , Bay City MI
2003 Gregory Steel, GaleriaZero, Barcelona, Spain
2000 Conversations, Media Union Gallery, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Sculpture Garage Sale, Ann Arbor, MI

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2021

KaatsBaan Cultural Center, summer season

2020

Purely Abstract, Fine Line Arts Center, St. Charles, IL
City of Russiaville Indiana, sculpture commission
House on Fire, Pam Miller Art Center, Lexington Kentucky
Gallery Attaché, London, Great Britain
Monaco Art Fair, Monte Carlo, Monaco

2019

Hoosier Salon, Indiana State Museum, Indianapolis, Indiana
13th Annual Juried Sculpture Exhibition, Rosewood Art Center, Kettering, Ohio
Monaco Art and Yacht show Monte Carlo, Monaco
Scope Miami, Miami Beach, FL.
Open Source, Los Angeles Center for Digital Art, Los Angeles, CA
Art Monaco, Monaco Contemporary Art Fair, Monte-Carlo, Monaco
Art Expo New York, New York, New York
Gallery Attaché, London, Great Britain

2018

New York Art Expo, Pier 94, New York NY
Open Source, Los Angeles Center for Digital Art, Los Angeles, CA
Electron Salon, Los Angeles Center for Digital Arts, Los Angeles, CA
Art Expo New York, New York, New York
ArtUpClose, Monte Carlo, Monaco
Artifact, Yukyung Art Museum, Geoji, South Korea
Red Dot Miami, Miami, FL
Finding Peace, Kokomo, Indiana

2017

Anima Mundi, Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi, Cannaregio, Italy
Electron Salon, Los Angeles Center for Digital Art, Los Angeles, CA
Alchemic Body, Laura Graber Gallery, Buenos Aries, AR
Monaco Yatch Show, Monte Carlo, Monaco
Listing in Art in America

2016

Electron Salon, Los Angeles Center for Digital Art, Los Angeles, CA
Spectrum Miami, Miami Art Week, Miami, FL
Snap to Grid, Los Angeles Center for Digital Art, Los Angeles, CA
Art Expo New York, Pier 94, New York, NY
Fragmented Identities, Bahcesehir University, Rome, Italy
Electron Salon, Los Angeles Center for Digital Art, Los Angeles, CA
Actual Size, Detroit Contemporary Gallery, Detroit, MI
Electron Salon, Los Angeles Center for Digital Art, December2016
Featured Artist, New York Art Expo, sponsored by ArtUpClose Gallery
Listing in Art and America
Electron Salon, Los Angeles Center for Digital Art, March2106
Snap To Grid, Los Angeles Center for Digital Art

2015

Selfie Show, MONA, Detroit MI
GZBASEL, Galleria Zero, Basel Switzerland
Identities, Venice Italy
Electron Salon, Los Angeles Center for Digital Art, Los Angeles CA
Video Mind Freak Tour, First Friday, Kokomo IN

2014

Border Body, Almeria ,Spain, at MECA Mediterráneo Centro Artístico and Palazzo Barone Ferrara in Bari, Italy

2013

Mixing Cities, Gydnia InfoBox, Gydnia Poland
Identities, Istanbul Cultural Center, Istanbul Turkey
Mixed Hybrids, Carnival of Venice, Scoletta di San Giovanni Battista e del SS. Sacremnto,Bragora Venice, Italy
Art of Liquid Modernity, Castello Svero(Swabain Castle), Santa Teresa dei Maschi and Sala Murat, Bari, Italy
Art Metting 2103, Galry, 41 Rue de Verneuil, Paris France
Hybrids, International Video Festival, Edinburgh Scotland
Hybrids, International Video Festival, Camaguey, Cuba

2012

Identities, International Video Festival, Istanbul Turkey, Koza Visual Culture and Arts Association
Liquid Identities, Scoletta di San Giovanni Battista e del SS. Sacramento in Bragora, Venice Italy
Hidden Cities, International Media Exhibition, Rome, Italy
Smart Cities, Carnivale of Venice, Venice Italy

2011

Fluxfest, New York City
Actual Size, Whitdel Arts, Detroit Michigan

2010

Limo Video International, London England
After the Pedestal, Sculpture Center, Cleveland Ohio
Shanghia International art Fair, Shanghia China
Tokyo International Art Fair, Toyko, Japan
Line Art, Brussels, Belgium

2009

Ritual & Repition, National/International Travelling Exhibition
Borders+ Segments, Florean Museum, Baia Mare, Romania
Digital Art L.A., L.A.Center for Digital Art, Los Angeles, CA
Video Art Festival, National Center for Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia
Green Box #1, Hidden Noise Art Space, Indianapolis Indiana
Square, Hidden Noise Art Space, Indianapolis Indiana

2008

Liquid Cities, Micro Museum, Brooklyn, NY
Urban Identity Video Art, Monkey Town,Brooklyn NY
Textual Evidence, Hidden Noise Art Space, Indianapolis, Indiana
International Art Experience, Gallery Zero Barcelona Spain
“Reading Action” Hidden Noise Art Space, Indianapolis Indiana
“View from the passenger window/ Landscape” Indiana University Northwest, Gary Indiana

2007

After Urban Video Art, Brooklyn NY
Artcite 25th Anniversary Exhibition, Artcite Inc. Windsor Ontario, Canada
White on White, Fortworth Center for the Arts, Forthworth TX.
International Art Expo at the NOMAD, Bucharest Romainia
Video Festival, Spainish Cultural Center, El Salvador.
Repition & Ritual, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI
After Urban, Videofestival University of Pennsylvania, Philedelphia, Pennsylvania
10th Annual Detroit International Video Festival, MONA, Rochester MI
Liquid Room, International Video Festival, Cultural Communications Centre, Klaipede. Lithuania
Brooklyn Artists Gym, Small Works Show, Brooklyn, New York
Liquid Room, International Video Festival, New York NY
Attitude, experimental film & photography Festival,Magza Cultural Center,Bitola Macedonia
International Group Exhibition, Gallery 27, Cork Street, London England

2006

Whitewater Arts Competition, Indiana University East
Xiamen International Exhibition, Xiamen University, Xaimen China
Fujan International Show, Fujan Province, Chinav
Omma Center for Art Group Show, Hiana, Create, Greece
Rivers Edge Film Festival, Paducah, Kentucky
Indiana University Kokomo Experimental Video Festival, Kokomo, Indiana
Temporary Cities, International Center for Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia
International Festival of Electronic Arts, Santa Fe, Argentina
Snap to Grid 2006, Los Angeles Center for Digital Art

2005

International Video Festival, Carnubari, Romanian
Snap to Grid, Los Angels Center for Digital Art, Los Angeles, CA
Detroit International Video Festival, MONA, Rochester, MI
Meeting With China, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China
Contrasts, Zero Project, Berlin
International Video Art Festival, Ferrara, Italy
2nd International Independent Video/Filmfestival, Vienna, Austria & Mainz, Germany
Videofestival, Kaliningrad Branch of the National Center for Contemporary Arts, Kaliningrad, Russia
Profiling, 555 Gallery, Detroit, MI.

2004

Summer 2004, Galeriazero, Barcelona, Spain
A History of Conflict-A Future of Hope, Frazier Museum, Louisville, Kentucky
Staff@ Work, Work Exhibition Space, Ann Arbor, MI

2003

Santa Show, Warren Robbins Center Gallery, Ann Arbor, MI
All Area Show , Bay City MI
Actual Size, Detroit Contemporary Gallery, Detroit MI
Florence Biennial. Florence, Italy
International Group Exhibition, OMMA, Center of Contemporary Art, Hania, Crete Greece.
Double Vision Work Exhibition Space, Ann Arbor, MI
Playground Warren Robbins Center, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

2002

Third Dimension, Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center, Birmingham, MI.
Hear, Hear, ArtProTem, sound works show, Ann Arbor, MI
Summer 2002, Galeria d’Art Zero, Barcelona, Spain

2001

Artists Take on Detroit, Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit MI, Collaboration, J. Wesner
Annual All Media Exhibition, Ann Arbor Art Center, Ann Arbor, MI
October International Competition, Armory Art Center, West Palm Beach, FL.
Actual Size, Detroit Contemporary Gallery, Detroit, MI.
Storefront Studios, Holland, MI
Street Art, Ann Arbor, MI
MFA Thesis Exhibition, Jean Paul Slusser Gallery, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

2000

Haunt, Robbin Center Gallery, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Hydra, Jon Paul Slusser Gallery, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

1999

Noah’s Underground Show Ann Arbor, MI

1998

Polk Art and Technology Competition, Birmingham Bloomfield Arts Association, Birmingham, MI

1996

Scarab Club, Gold Medal Show, Detroit, MI

SHOWS (CURATOR)

2016

Stewart Green, A Retrospective, IU Kokomo Art Gallery, Kokomo, IN

2015

U-Shop, Kokomo, IN

2013

Fluxus Intervention, IU Kokomo Art Gallery, Kokomo, IN

2009

Al Hebert, Indiana University Kokomo, Kokomo IN
Margaret Dolinsky, Indiana University Kokomo, Kokomo IN
Ken Friedman, 73 Events, Indiana University Kokomo

2006

Body in Question, Indiana Univ. Kokomo
International Video Festival, Indiana Univ. Kokomo
Contemporary Drawing, Indiana University
New media exploration, Indiana University

2001

U-Shop, Ann Arbor, MI

PUBLICATIONS

2020

The Sublime, an existential and ontological alliance with mystery. (Dissertation)

2013

Using Virtual Online Environments for Synchronous Online Courses with Scott Jones, PhD and dean of Humanities and social sciences.
Published in JoOTL Journal of Teaching and Learning Technology, Volume 2 Number 1 July of 2013.

2008

Natural Born Fluxus
White on White Catalog, White on White Exhibition
International Contemporary Masters 2008

2007

>Best of America, Photography

2006

New Art International NUVO Magazine, Indianapolis Indiana Current in Carmel

2004

Bay City Times, review
Ann Arbor News, review

2003

Dizionario Enciclopedico Internazionale d Arte Moderna e Contemporanea

2002

Ann Arbor News, Hear Here, April 23, 2002
Detroit News, Hear/Here, May 24, 2002

2001

Ann Arbor News, U-Shop

OTHER

2002

Interview, WFUM Radio, Hear/Here, May 23, 2002

2001

Interview, Michigan Public Radio, U-Shop

AWARDS & GRANTS

2010

New Frontiers Travel Grant for research

2005/06

New Frontiers Grant, Indiana University

2003 /04

Associated Acedemician, Accademia Internazionale, Greci Marino, Accademia Del Verbano, Di Lettere, Arti, Sciences

1998

Benson & Edith Ford Scholarship, Center for Creative Studies, Detroit, MI
Center for Creative Studies Merit Scholarship, Center for Creative Studies,Detroit,MI

1997

Benson & Edith Ford Scholarship, Center for Creative Studies, Detroit, MI
Center for Creative Studies Merit Scholarship, Center for Creative Studies,Detroit,MI

1996

Scarab Club Gold Medal Show, Honorable Mention, Scarab Club, Detroit, MI

GALLERY AFFILIATION

Galleria Zero, Barcelona, Spain
NY Arts gallery, New York
Gallery Attaché, London
ArtUpFront, New York, NY

PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS

Kokomo Public Arts Action Coalition
College Art Association
The American Society for Aesthetics
William James Society
International Society for Arts, Sciences & Technology

GREGORY STEEL By Robert Mahoney

In his recent work, Gregory Steel continues to exhibit, both in video and in small sculpture, conceptual conundrums that intend to break down the boundary between art and life. A maker of videos, installations, books, drawings, and various objects of conceptual art ranging from the sculptural to the purely intellectual, Steel peppers life with every media in order to make a case for this delirious interpenetration into the world. In addition to his multimedia stratagems, one must also mention that much of Steel’s art is highly personal, thus entering his art is also entering his life.

In a recent series of tiny sconce-top maquettes for unattainable monuments, Steel has funneled former sculptural impulses into a quest to answer fundamental conceptual questions. In Pretending to See and Peril, In Anticipation of, Steel calls up the ghost of Claes Oldenburg by presenting a tiny vision of a monument for a local park, served up on a gilt baroque wall-sconce with all the pomp of a waiter lofting a tray of hors d’oeuvres. In these scenes tiny Laurie Simmons-type toy figures, emblematic of middle-Americans, confront the alien presence of what must look like, to them, a crustily-surfaced meteor having fallen into their paradise. But the alien object is quite recognizable to our supersize nation as a mouth-watering turkey leg, and so the scenario also dissolves into a picnic prank. Though it may be that, like Oldenberg, Steel proposes a gargantuan Pop icon as an idea for a monumental sculpture, the stereoscopic scale of the object more likely offers a hallucinatory answer to the nervous souls of bland cityscapes, who seek worlds in grains of truth in order to escape from daily life. That Steel has made Mid-America his home base means that his version of the nondescript is everywhere, as he lives in a “what you see is what you get” culture that may have led him to question the immortality of even reputedly great cultural icons. For example, in an additional piece entitled Trip to the City, all that the artist brings back with him, from the land of lavish MOMA logos and the hoopla of the Big Apple is a plastic museum bag commandeered to haul home fresh apples. Once again, the inflated is deflated, the simple is made precious and, again, everything is food for thought.

Another recent video of the artist’s reveals more clearly some of Steel’s sculptural concerns, though in stripped-down form. When I’m Not There is admittedly not an upbeat meditation, in the landscape of the literal and the minimal, about one’s mortality and the relationship of consciousness and mind to body and its presence in time. In his version of the eternal philosophical conundrum, “if a tree falls in a forest and no one hears it, does it make a noise?” Steel has left his video camera at home, running, while he leaves for work. When he is not there, what does the video camera see? Does anything happen, can anything be said to happen, when the eye and mind of the beholder is not there? Three vignettes retreat from a fantasy that something might happen - a full glass of milk, left on a kitchen counter, empties itself - to a mysterious wondering if what really happened did happen - a page of a coffee table book turns itself, though it might have been the wind and not some ghostly reader - to a sad realization that maybe nothing, or much, happens, and it all goes on in any case without me. These worries are raised by a long take of a corner of tile floor, where a nearly unnoticeable draft whirlpools up dust, and this microscopic riot continues long after one has resigned oneself to the fact that there must by now be no one behind Steel’s camera either. Flirting with the zero degree of perception laid down by existentialists and minimalists, Steel is really exploring life after death, and demands a visionary capacity in his viewer. As one wonders what is going on, or at what scale something is meant to be taken, or in what sense - literal or figurative - one must approach a work by, one thinks more of early Duane Michals or even the film director Roman Polanski (as, for example, in the film Repulsion) than the absolute literalists of mainstream American minimalism. Thus the sconces serve the recent sculpture not as metaphorical quotation marks, but as reminders that, in this new century, reality is constructed by how the perceiving mind frames, mounts, stages or presents it, even when that perception is merely implied in the art and technology we leave behind.

Sculptor Gregory Steel: Putting Ideas into Practice

By
Jonathan Goodman

Born and raised in Detroit, Gregory Steel has been a working artist long before receiving his advanced academic degrees in art. He also has a doctorate in philosophy, making him a man of ideas as much as a master of construction. We are living in theoretical times, which sometimes dominate and erode art’s capacity for visual pleasure. But Steel, despite forty years of study of both Western and Asian philosophy, knows that the primary impact of art is visual. One of his most striking sculptures is called Iki (2018), a Japanese term meaning stylishness. It consists of two sets of rods, steel blue in color, set on the edge of a thin limestone slab, nearly white in hue. The elegance of the sculpture cannot be denied, and this, it seems, is what Steel is after: a pronounced poise created from the virtuous use of materials, along with an intellectual orientation informing the solid construction of simpler shapes.

The tradition of steel sculpture is highly evident in Steel’s art. On seeing his work, one often thinks of the precedent structures of David Smith and Anthony Caro. But the Japanese elegance of Iki also informs Steel’s work. Steel’s formalist abstractions often seem to chart philosophical concepts which make him an artist of greater import than if he were just describing visual structures. In Spirit Path (2018), also made of steel and limestone, a circle consisting of steel rods is attached to two flat panels of steel which in turn, suggest two ascending paths. The panels, in turn, are joined to a roughly contoured boulder, indicating a living presence outside the one we know. At the base of the panels are two circular disks--such shapes have often signified unlimitedness. Binary ideas permeate this work, as well as Steel’s other sculptures, pointing the way to visual choices that ultimately support one another and lead to the same conclusion.

Still (2020) might be described as an abstract still life. It consists of two groups of steel rods, wrapped tightly by metal bands. These two groups are supported by vertical ovals of steel; one set rises above the ovals while the other goes no further than the oval’s highest point. Everything is colored a rust-red. The title might just as easily be directed toward the mind’s stillness in contemplation. But with Still we are not reading philosophy- we are experiencing a state of being. In Still Standing (2020), Steel has set up two dark, vertical steel beams, with another, shorter beam crossing both near the top of the work. The title refers to the angle downward of the two verticals, which makes them seem as if they were about to tip over creating a delicate balancing act.

Yuugen (2018), a Japanese term meaning a deep awareness of the universe, is indicated in Steel’s welded-steel work, which is composed of slightly curving steel-blue planks with rims rising on both edges of the steel planes. It is another beautiful piece about balance. The artwork consists of a curving piece of steel, and another curving beam steel beam crosses it toward the top. At the bottom of the sculpture is another beam, very near which a couple of steel disks occur. The color of all the components is an exquisite gray-blue. The notion of balance and equanimity, achieved by long stays in meditation is central to Zen Buddhism.Yuugen embraces the awareness that comes from the contemplative mind. Like most of Steel’s works, it embodies a quiet that is as much Asian as it is Western, although the language of Western abstract sculpture is predominant. Ultimately, Steel is a master of sculpture that describes the delicate balance between space and being.

GREGORY STEEL: ARTIFACTS ***** Galerie Penumbra.

Smart and witty, Gregory Steel’s video and assemblage work critiques the status quo with 1960s conviction. Borrowing from the traditions of Marcel Duchamp, Steel uses everyday objects to construct works that comment on contemporary events and politics, cause and effect, lost and abandoned. Things such as glass containers, miniature plastic fagurines and old photographic portraits are placed on freshly painted white wood shelves, pedestals or compartments. White doilies,.sand and casting leftovers are often included - think museum specimens or grandma's covered sills. Several works reference Apocalypse Now and comment on war,. fear or surrender. In "Fearism," a glass box contains a miniature landscape of sand, white plastic toy People, and an actual preserved scorpion. Inside the box the toy People .. stand crowded on a dosed scaffolding tower and happily gawk at the poised scorpion as if viewing a bullfight. This spectacle shows no means of escape, but the irony is lost on the crowd. Are we notable to recognize the dangers that may be of our own making? Steel presents this question and other's in a thoughtful, humorus and aesthetically pleasing manner.

Still

Emerson

Spirit Path

Yoshi

Mu

Iki

Yuugen

Ryoshi

Tomoe Gozen

Shogushin

Still Standing

Walking

Whisper

Rumble

Wandering

Happenstance

Rise

Play

Reach

Ponder

Crane

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Put Your Backs Into It

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Crane Soul