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ARTIST'S STATEMENT
An alchemy occurs when the outer world is transformed into video: it becomes mind-stuff. I carry this process forward, questioning the nature of reality, exploring time and dimensionality by weaving fragments of the world into new patterns. In this way, video can enjoy the same freedom as painting and music; it can be something, not just about something.
Van McElwee’s body of work encompasses over forty video installations and single channel works.
Selected one-person shows and installations include: The Kitchen, New York City, The Shanghai Duolun Museum of Art, China, a retrospective and six installations at The Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis; Galerie Trabant, Austria, a twenty-five year retrospective at St. Louis University Museum of Art, Thread Waxing Space, New York, a ten-year survey at Rencontres Video Art Plastique in France; Argos Gallery in Belgium; two one-person shows at Berkeley Museum of Art Pacific Film Archive, California; a Virginia Museum of Art touring exhibition, The Marsh Gallery at the University of Richmond, Virginia; Medienwerkstatt in Vienna; a video wall at the Continental Insurance Building, New York, Citicorp Center, New York, Ohio University Gallery of Art, Athens; Artist’s Television Access, San Francisco and a commissioned installation for the COSI Museum in Columbus, Ohio.
Selected group shows and festivals include: The Paula Cooper Gallery New York, The Long Beach Museum of Art, Ars Electronica, ZKM, Camden Arts Centre,UK, Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen, The Wexner Center for the Arts, The New York Video Festival, The Berlin Film Festival, The London Film Festival, The Worldwide Video Festival, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Impakt, Videonale, Bonn,The Black Maria Festival, European Media Arts Festival, Artpool, Budapest, Montevideo, Amsterdam, The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, Digital Dance Festival, Seoul, Korea, The New York Expo, The Biennial of Media and Architecture, Graz, Austria, a video wall at the Dallas Museum of Art for the Dallas Video Festival; an Installation at The International Symposium on Electronic Arts in Montreal; an installation at F.A U.S.T. in France; an installation at the Film Festival of Lille, France, and installations at international art fairs in London, Paris, Brussels, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Zurich.
McElwee’s work has been broadcast in the United States, Germany, Switzerland, France and Latin America.
Grants and awards include: The American Film Institute Independent Filmmaker Award; Seven Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts Independent Production Fund; a travel grant from the Government of India and two production grants from Media Arts in Missouri. McElwee was Artist-in-Residence at the Experimental Television Center, Owego, New York.
Other awards include: the Grand Prize at the New Arts Program Biennial, the Experimental Video Award at the Athens International Film and Video Festival; Director’s Choice Award from the Black Maria Festival; Award of Excellence, Award of Recognition, and the Wendy Hearn Invitational Award, from the Missouri Video Festival; Award of Merit from the Sinking Creek Festival; Honorable Mention at Film+Arc in Austria; a Jury Award from the New York Expo and the Center for New Television Consulting Award, and a production award from the
New Music Circle, St. Louis, MO.
Nominations include: The International Award for Media Art (seven nominations,) sponsored by ZKM & SWR Television in Germany;
The Rockefeller Foundation Intercultural Fellowship(1994),
The Rockefeller Foundation Media Arts Fellowship (2002, 2003 2004and 2005).McElwee’s work is represented by Galerie Trabant, Austria, The Kitchen in New York,
Heure Exquise! in France, 235 Media in Germany and LUX in the United Kingdom.
McElwee’s tapes are archived in numerous international collections.Education : MFA in Multimedia 1978, Washington University School of Art; Merit Scholarship;
studied with electronic music composer Tom Hamilton and sound and light artist Howard Jones.
BFA in Printmaking 1973, Memphis College of Art.Van McElwee is Professor of Electronic and Photographic Media at Webster University, St. Louis, Missouri.
