Jeffu Warmouth

Biography

statement | exhibitions | publications | resume/cv (pdf)

Biography

Jeffu Warmouth was born in California in 1970, and lives & works in Massachusetts. He received a BA from the University of Michigan in 1992, and an MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University in 1997. He is Professor of Communications Media & Game Design at Fitchburg State University.

Warmouth's artwork has shown internationally, including Art on the Marquee, Boston, MA; DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA; MicroCineFest, Baltimore, MD; John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI; Flux Factory, New York; Experimenta Media Arts, Melbourne, Australia; and the 404 Festival of Art & Technology, Rosario, Argentina.

In 2014, the Fitchburg Art Museum in Massachusetts hosted his mid-career retrospective Jeffu Warmouth: NO MORE FUNNY STUFF. His work has been featured and reviewed in numerous publications including Photography and Humour, Exploring Color Photography, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Lowell Sun, Worcester Magazine, PBS, and National Public Radio.

Artist Statement

The human condition is an endless source of fascination. How can we search for meaning while negotiating the promises and demands of consumer society? What can mundane actions tell us about an individual's relationship to the self, to others, or the Universe? Might awkward pauses, glottal stops, wordplay, or shrieks open new avenues to the inner recesses of the mind? Is the quickest way to the human soul through the eye, the brain, or the stomach? Which will redeem us: conceptual art or slapstick comedy?

I am driven by language, humor, gesture, and composition. I perform for the camera in the tradition of DADA, physical comedians, or minimalist dancers, finding comedy, poetry, and pathos in everyday gesture. I structure these repetitive movements into compositions that I project onto physical structures, or play on stacked TVs. The various projected bodies or heads are instances of myself: crawling, chanting, or simply being.

I am home in the spaces and practices of consumer culture, and in the minimalist world of the 20th century avant-garde. I work both intuitively and conceptually, posing serious questions about identity, culture, and language. I hope to manifest personal and collective ideas of time, determinism, humanity, work, and freedom. And I always strive to create open works that leave room for the viewer's associations and experiences.

Education

1997 School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, MFA

1992 University of Michigan, BA

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2022 Jeffu Warmouth: Stamp Sketches & Stomp Boxes, Boston Sculptors Gallery, Boston, MA

2019 Jeffu Warmouth: Urgent Blowout, Boston Sculptors Gallery, Boston, MA

2014 Jeffu Warmouth: NO MORE FUNNY STUFF, Fitchburg Art Museum, Fitchburg, MA

2012 Jeffu Warmouth: MERGE, The Window Project, Atlanta, GA

2011 SuperJeffuBurgerMarket, SHOW Gallery, New York, NY

2010 Jeffu Warmouth—Food Court, University of Massachusetts, Lowell, MA

2009 Nourishment: Art that feeds the soul and makes strong funny bones, Art Institute of Boston, MA (2-person)

2008, SPUDNIK and other stories by Jeffu!, The Gallery at Childrens Hospital, Boston, MA

2003 SuperJEFFUMarket, Pittsburg State University Gallery, Pittsburg, KS

1997 Jeffu Warmouth: Kitchen Craze, Tufts University Gallery, Medford, MA

1996 Home Alchemy, Hudson Valley Institute for Art & Photographic Resources, Peekskill, NY

1994 Photographs by Jeffrey E Warmouth, Del Rio, Ann Arbor, MI

1992 Jeff Warmouth—Crossover: image/text, Gallery 124, Residential College, Ann Arbor, MI

Selected Group Exhibitions

2020 (com)posto, Academia Nacional de Belas-Artes, Lisbon, Portugal

2020 Revolutions Per Minute Festival, University of Massachusetts, Boston, MA

2019 Montras, Cultivamos Cultura, Saõ Luis, Portugal

2019 TRANS(FORMA)R, Biblioteca Municipal José Saramago, Odemira, Portugal

2019 Hyper-Active: Interactive Installation Art, Emerson College, Boston, MA

2019 404 International Festival of Art & Technology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell, MA

2018 History of the Future, Boston Cyberarts Gallery, Boston, MA

2017 Humorgous Smorgasboard, Flux Factory, New York, NY

2016 Blago Bung X, Cabaret Voltaire, Zurich, Switzerland

2015 404 Festival of Art & Technology, Rosario, Argentina

2014 COLLISION20:bilocate, Boston Cyberarts Gallery, Boston, MA

2013 CUBED: Norton Warmouth Wilson (3-person show), 119 Gallery, Lowell, MA

2012 DysTorpia, FirstWorks, New York, NY

2011 C A R T, Current Gallery, Baltimore, MD

2010 A Sense of Humor, John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI

2009 Kaunas Photo Festival, Cafe SADUTE, Kaunas, Lithuania

2008 Artists and Books, The Art Complex Museum, Duxbury, MA

Seriously, Funny: Without Borders V Contemporary Art Festival, University of Maine, Orono, 2008

2007 DeCordova Annual Exhibition, DeCordova Museum & Sculpture Park, Lincoln, MA

2007 Trainscape: Installation Art for Model Railroads, DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA

2006 Monsters, Astronauts, & Silicon Flowers, Green Street Gallery, Boston, MA (3-person)

2006 ART SHOW DOWN, Art Interactive, Cambridge, MA

2006 Intersections: Sculpture & Installation from Distinguished MA Artists, Open Square, Holyoke, MA

2005 New York / New England / New Talent, Hampden Gallery, Amherst, MA

2004 Participatory Democracy, Art Interactive, Cambridge, MA,

2003 Contemporary Genre, LH Horton Jr. Gallery, Stockton, California, (3-person)

2003 Plastic Fantastic, Chicago Art Institute, Chicago, IL

2003 BOOM BOX: The Art of Sound, Mills Gallery, Boston Center for the Arts, Boston, MA

2001 Lighten Up: Art With a Sense of Humor, DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA

1999 Distinguishing/Distinguished Jewish, Starr Gallery, Newton, MA

1999 The Apartment Show, Zach Feuer's Apartment, Boston, MA

1998 Architectural Subjectivity: Home as Identity, White Elephant Gallery, Boston, MA

1997 Arranged Marriages, Family Rooms & Laundry Detergent, Mills Gallery, Boston, MA

1997 Consum(e)ation: Food, Fetish, & Fantasy, Tufts University, Medford, MA

1997 Artrages Deranges, Mobius, Boston, MA

1994 International Art Exhibition of Student Works, Nagoya University of Arts, Nagoya, Japan

Selected Film/Video Screenings

2019 Art on the Marquee Round 28, Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, Boston, MA

2018 Art on the Marquee Round 25, Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, Boston, MA

2017 Art on the Marquee Round 21, Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, Boston, MA

2016 KLEX Open Programme, Lostgens' Contemporary Artspace & Findars Art Space, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

2016 Art on the Marquee Round 19, Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, Boston, MA

2015 Art on the Marquee Round 13, Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, Boston, MA

2014 Beacons Music & Arts Festival, Heslaker Farm, Skipton, North Yorkshire, UK

2013 Festival of Sound Art & Performance Art, Contemporary Arts International, Acton, MA

2013 Game Play Festival, Brick Theater, Brooklyn, NY

2013 17th International Video Festival VIDEOMEDEJA, Novi Sad, Serbia

2008 Electric Shadows, AXIOM Center for New & Experimental Media, Boston, MA

2008 Boston Underground Film Festival, Brattle Theatre, Boston, MA

2007 Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Market, Clermont-Ferrand, France

2006 Phoenix Film Festival, Harkins Theatres, Phoenix, AZ

2006 New Haven Underground Film Festival, Wadsworth Athenaeum, Hartford, CT

2006 Faux Film Festival, Hollywood Theatre, Portland, Oregon

2006 Ybor Festival of the Moving Image, Hillsborough Community College, Tampa, FL

2005 Festival NEMO, Forum des Images, Paris, France

2004 House of Tomorrow: Home Fictions, Experimenta Media Arts, Melbourne, Australia (& Tour)

2003 25hrs, 25 hour video art event, Barcelona, Spain

2003 Brainwash Film Festival, Alliance for West Oakland, Oakland, CA (also 2006)

2003 Dallas Video Festival, Dallas Theater Center, Dallas, TX (also 2001, 2006)

2002 MicroCineFest, The G-Spot, Baltimore, MD (also 2006)

2002 CyberLounge, Boston Cyberarts Festival, Green Street Gallery, Jamaica Plain, MA

2001 Light Plays Tricks Short Film Festival, Kingston, Ontario

2000 New York Independent Film & Video Festival, Clearview Cinema, New York, NY

1999 Chicago Underground Film Festival, Arena Theater, Chicago, IL

1999 Crackpot Theorists & Terminal Technologies, Boston Cyberarts Festival, Boston, MA

1999 Euro Underground Film Festival, Kino Mikro, Krakow, Poland (& tour)

1996 Irony Rules: Incongruity in Video, VideoSpace at Mobius, Boston, MA

Selected Awards

2019 MSCA Professional Development Award, Fitchburg State University, Fitchburg, MA

2018 Artist's Resource Trust Award, Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, Sheffield, MA

2017 Finalist team for Harmoni-us, Gr8 Art Games Jam, Goethe-Institut, Boston, MA

2015 Visiting Artist/Scholar, American Academy in Rome, Italy

2015 Marion and Jasper Whiting Foundation Fellowship, Boston, MA

2015 Faculty Research Award, Fitchburg State University, Fitchburg, MA

2013 Artist-in-Residence, 119 Gallery, Lowell, MA

2013 Artist Resource Trust (to Fitchburg Art Museum), Berkshire Taconic Foundation, Sheffield, MA

2012 New Media Competition: First Place, University Film & Video Association Conference, Chicago, IL

2008 Nominee, James and Audrey Foster Prize, Institute for Contemporary Art, Boston

2007 Ruth Butler Grant, Fitchburg State College, Fitchburg, MA

2007 Finalist, Artadia: The Fund for Art and Dialogue, Boston, MA

2005 Finalist, Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Grant Program, Sculpture/Installation

2003 Grand Prize, Brainwash Film Festival, Oakland, CA

2002 Associate Undergraduate Faculty Research Award, Fitchburg State College, Fitchburg, MA

2002 Grand Jury "Way Cool Award" for Best Puppetry, MicroCineFest, Baltimore, MD

1998 Kahn Visiting Artist Grant, Project for New Music, Harvard University

1997 Postgraduate Teaching Fellowship, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

1994 Prize for Excellence, International Art Exhibition of Student Works, Nagoya University of Arts, Japan

Selected Publications

Publications

Teaching

Fitchburg State University, Professor, Communications Media Department, 1997 - present