In Tim Roda’s Family Construction, the artist creates contemporary mythological portraits that capture the jealousies, intimacies, emotional dramas and conflicts, enigma of femininity, and identity struggles inherent in family —and serves them up with all their beauty, brutality, hilarity, and over the top theatricality for our voyeuristic pleasure. The work was created during his Kennedy Family Fellowship in Florida, conceived during his Fulbright Award in Italy, and is an extension of his pivotal exhibition Games of Antiquities produced and exhibited at Gasser & Grunert in 2010.

These are personal, playful and poignant portraits that re-imagine childhood memories, family traditions and roles through historical influences and symbolism. The scenes expand from his previous focus on the father-son relationship with Ethan (now age 14) to the whole family including his younger sons’ (Andre, age 1; Tre, age 3; Rocco, age 4) intense sibling love/hate dynamics and Freudian relationship with their mother, Allison.

Roda’s signature black and white 35mm film photographs have both a poetic dreaminess and a raw grittiness appropriate for the content of barbarism, cultic sacrifices and other disturbing ideas explored. The artist tips his hand in the photographs, inviting the audience into the dramatically composed studio sets in which he manipulates materials, mirrors, and lighting in non-traditional ways to create shadows and off-kilter effects. The playful staging and costumes are evidence of the artist’s humor and self-irony.

For the first time, Tim Roda will also show large-scale digital color photographs some of which are in reference to scenes depicted in the black and white photographs in the exhibition. The images are alive with intensely vibrant color of his studio and productions – yellow, turquoise, pink, purple and polka dots – influences from his time in Mediterranean surroundings. These images bridge contemporary visual culture with his timeless revisionist fables in black and white, and have evoked references to Grimm fairytales, Jim Jarmusch and Pier Paolo Pasolini films, Renaissance paintings, and more.

The Artist

Tim Roda (b. 1977, Pennsylvania) is an MFA graduate of the University of Washington, and BFA graduate of Pennsylvania State University, PA. Roda’s work has been shown and collected internationally. Major museum shows include: “Family Album” Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, Illinois, 2007; “Fragments” Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas, 2006; “Collaborations” Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, 2006. Tim Roda received a Fulbright Award to Rome, Italy, 2008-2009. He will be participating in the “Mediations” Biennale, Poland, from September 14 – October 14, 2012.

His work is in the collections of Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon; The Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College, New York; The Rose Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts; Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, Illinois; Essl Collection, Klosterneuburg, Austria;
Museum of Contemporary Art, Houston, Texas;
Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington;
and The Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, Washington.

This is the artists’ fourth time exhibiting with Klemens Gasser & Tanja Grunert.