Headlands Center for the Arts

Statement

Joshua Short’s work blurs the line between audience, artwork, and performer, inviting the viewer to complete the work—much like the all American spectacle of pro-wrestling, the audience is part of the performance. The action of entering into the artwork as a participant generates a more authentic experience by suspending the social filters that we carry into everyday life. Short uses cultural detritus as a point of departure. The inherited meanings found within cast-off objects, combined with his artistic sensibilities, creates an altered space that frames contemporary American mythologies and rituals.

Artist Bio

Short graduated with an MFA from UC Davis 2009. He was awarded a Joan Mitchell Foundation grant, and a graduate fellowship at The Headlands Center for the Arts in 2010. Short has had solo exhibitions at venues including the Bedford Gallery, Johansson Projects, The San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, and the Exploratorium. He has been a resident artist at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, Yaddo, Joan Mitchell Center, and Crosstown Arts. He regularly tours the country operating his Low Powered FM radio project Bomb Shelter Radio.