Robert Ladislas Derr

Exhibited in Solo and group exhibitions at museums, galleries, and festivals throughout the United States and abroad including the Irish Film Institute. DIVA Festival, 2002 Blur Conference at Parsons School of Design, Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art, Peninsula Fine Arts Center, Huntington Museum of Art, Rhode Island Foundation, Virginia Beach Center for the Arts, and New York University. His artwork has been reviewed by such publications as The New York Times, trace Online Writing Centre, and Block Magazine. He has lectured about his artwork at such institutions as the Victoria Independent Film and Video Festival and Pre/amble; Festival of Art and Psychogeography. Derr has been a recipient of a number of grants, fellowship from the Ohio Arts Council and stipend from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Using a variety of artistic vernacular in his work, Derr employs photographs, video, new media, and performance. It can be said that he often times puts himself literally in the center of a barrage of questions about life and making art. Derr is an assistant professor in the Ohio State University’s Department of Art photography program.

Artist Statement ; I question the role of my masculinity by empowering the feminine aspects of my personality. The duality between my wife as the thrower and me as the sitter demonstrates my psychological battle questioning social roles of gender and sexuality, which have become blurred in contemporary society.

Claiming ancestral heritage and taking responsibility for ones history has become a heated debate. By claiming my Dutch heritage, I engage the subjectivity of the images in The Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus created by Peter Paul Rubens. The image projected on my body portrays a contextual marker. My questioning and rejection assault my ancestry as well as masculinity.