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About the Artist

	Rob Costin exhibits paintings, prints, and mixed media work in San Francisco. His digital artwork is visible on the World Wide Web. Primarily self-taught, he trained in architecture at MIT, and in music at The Juilliard School. He was born in Los Angeles in 1960.
	Selected Exhibitions
2003	RESTAURANT 2223, solo invitational, curated by Gregg Cassin
2002	300 CALIFORNIA ST., Idea Garden, video installation with other artists, curated by Lone Schneider OPEN STUDIO with members of GLAA (Gay And Lesbian Artists Alliance), SF SF GLBT CENTER , Positive Too, curated by Liz Oppenheimer EROS, SF, Solo Exhibition, invitational, curated by Richard Bolingbroke SWEET INSPIRATION CAFÉ, SF, GLAA Exhibition REGENCY CENTER, SF, Tails of the City, benefit art auction, invitational SPANGANGA, SF, QBOX: Web Art and other Electronic Oddities, curated by Charles Gadeken PALACE OF THE LEGION OF HONOR, SF, Duchamp the Night Away, Artist Demonstration
2001	M. H. DE YOUNG ART CENTER, SF, Artist Residency And Demonstration PALACE OF THE LEGION OF HONOR, SF, Artist Residency And Demonstration OPEN STUDIO with GLAA, SF SOUTHERN EXPOSURE, SF, Post-Postcard 5 SWEET INSPIRATION CAFÉ, SF, GLAA Exhibition THE CANVAS, SF, Artspan Benefit Auction BASE ART GALLERY, SF, Bay Area Figurative Art Show, Curated by BJ Heinley
2000	OPEN STUDIO with GLAA, SF VITRA SHOWROOM, SF, Get Hooked On Art , Invitational BURNING MAN, Black Rock City, Nevada, Plum Island, solo audio-sculptural installation SWEET INSPIRATION CAFÉ, SF, GLAA Exhibition HANG, SF, Artspan Benefit Auction
1999	OPEN STUDIO with GLAA, SF SWEET INSPIRATION CAFÉ, SF, GLAA Exhibition MUSIC ANNEX LOBBY GALLERY, SF, The Electric Palette, invitational
1998	OPEN STUDIO, SF SOMARTS GALLERY, SF, One Night Stand , Sponsored by ArtWorks SWEET INSPIRATION CAFÉ, SF, GLAA Exhibition BAY SHORE STUDIO LOBBY GALLERY, SF, Spring Exhibition
1997	OPEN STUDIO with GLAA, SF, Body Land RAVEN GALLERY, SF, Resurgence, Curated by Vince Gabrielly ELEVATION , SF, Featured Artists Show , Curated by Jim Hill and Phil Slatin THE STUDIO AT 344 NOE STREET, SF, Male Nudes: Ink And Computer, invitational, curated by William Hoppe
1996	OPEN STUDIO, San Francisco.
	Webography SFGLAA.com, 2001 - present Jeff Crerie, Digital Art Goes Tangible (And Sometimes Back Again), Eluusive.com, 1999 Gladiador, Museo del Gayo (Museum of Gay Art and Literature), gladiador.simplenet.com/museo 2000
	Bibliography Pat Lawrence, On the Way Up and Out, San Francisco Frontiers Magazine, October 4, 2001 Mark Mardon, The Hidden Art Scene, Bay Area Reporter, September 30, 1999 Jeff Crerie, Digital Art Goes Tangible (And Sometimes Back Again), Eluusive.com volume 001, September, 1999 Dino Balzano, Male Nudes: Ink and Computer, S.F. Frontiers, March 27, 1997 Brian Christianson, Lines of Art Drawn, Castro Star, April 1997

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About My Work My work falls roughly into two groups: pieces built on abstractions, and pieces centering around nude figures. In both cases, the computer is my primary tool. From computer-screen drawings I go on to develop paintings and prints. When drawing the figure I like to use live models, with a laptop under one hand and a digital stylus in the other. I often draw from my imagination, too, but it’s nice to be working in close range of a naked man. The computer, as a drawing tool, has some unique characteristics: it erases quickly and completely, which makes for fast work, and it lets the drawing pad grow in any direction as needed. My style is to use very simple, thick lines. Their purpose is to tell stories about male physicality, without too much detail. I’m looking for the emotional element in the body, which is all-too-often eclipsed by the erotic element. The less detail, the less the tendency for the erotic eclipse. My abstract work, on the other hand, is more about process. It emerges from repetition and variation. As I repeat simple shapes across an area, they change, like cells of a cartoon assembled in a single composition. I admire an African sensibility about patterning which encourages you to stir things up as you go along. This way of working gives me the security of a structure but also the freedom to experiment mid-stream - and the freedom to be imperfect. If all goes well, the end-product feels like life, where every breath is the same and yet every breath is different. Once designed, I transfer the pictures out of the computer and onto paper using an ink jet printer. I often enhance the prints by manipulating them - literally - denting them, wetting them, painting on them. The idea is to give them texture - something that doesn’t exist on the computer screen. Sometimes I paint in transparent layers over the print, allowing some digital patterns to show through; other times I paint over the print completely with opaque layers of acrylic, and call the end product a ‘painting.‘ Recently I have been printing with Lyson archival inks on Arches cold press watercolor paper. This combination of materials has been laboratory tested for an expected longevity of 55 years or more. Adding one more twist: in order to present these paper-based works on the Web, I scan them into the computer, bringing the images full-circle back to the electronic world. Rob Costin December 1999

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