Joe Diebes creates works that converge around the categories of contemporary music, sound installation and visual art. From 1996-2003 he was an artist member as well as the musical force behind the hybrid arts group GAle GAtes et al. described by The New York Times as “an adventurous troupe with one foot in the world of postmodern art and the other in downtown performance.” Since then he has created sound installations, often with a substantial visual component, for art galleries, museums, and public spaces in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. He also continues to create sound driven performance environments employing the spatial dimensions of his installations. His work continues to question the relationships between technology, artmaking, and a contemporary culture under the sway of a digital worldview.
| EDUCATION | |
| 1991 - 95 | B.A. Phi Beta Kappa and cum laude in Interdisciplinary Humanities Yale University, New Haven, CT |
| 1999 - 01 | composition studies at Juilliard, NYC |
| 2000 - 01 | private lessons in composition and acoustics with La Monte Young, NYC |
| SELECTED EXHIBITIONS | |
| 2008 | Mind + Soul | Sensibility x Sensation, two-person show Yuanfen New Media Gallery, Beijing, China |
| 2007 | summer show, group exhibition Marlborough Gallery, New York, NY |
| Scherzo (work in progress) , solo exhibition Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY |
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| i/o, sound/performance installation (in collaboration with Phil Soltanoff) Fusebox Festival, Austin, TX |
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| 2006 | emblem, outdoor public sound installation (commission) Winter Olympics 2006, Torino, Italy |
Cavities, group exhibition Main Art Gallery, California State University Fullerton, CA |
| 2005 | Song of Transformation, solo exhibition Bell Gallery / Brown University, Providence, RI |
| premonitions, solo exhibition Paul Rodgers/9W Gallery, New York, NY |
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| String Quartet No. 2, solo exhibition JSP New Media Gallery, Seattle, WA |
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| 2004 | vessels, solo exhibition Grand Central Art Center, Santa Ana, CA |
| Perfect Pitch, group exhibition Islip Art Museum, East Islip, NY |
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| music marking making music, group exhibition and curation Paul Rodgers/9W, New York, NY |
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| Suspension: Sonic Absorption, group exhibition installation commissioned by the College Art Assocation exhibited at Consolidated Works, Seattle, WA |
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| 2003 | Setting the Tone, group exhibition installation commissioned by Music At The Anthology GAle GAte et al., Brooklyn, NY |
| republic, site-specific installation St. Mark’s Church, New York, NY |
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| 2002 | presence, evolution II (species III), solo exhibition comissioned by Engine 27, New York, NY |
| 2001 | presence, site-specific installation commissioned by Trinity Church Concerts, New York, NY |
| SELECTED PERFORMANCE WORKS | |
| 2008 | Festival Novellum, Toulouse, France i/o, hybrid sound and movement performance installation in collaboration with Phil Soltanoff |
| 2007 | Singapore Arts Festival, Singapore biggerbetterfaster, sound and movement work in collaboration with Jo-Anne Lee |
| 2006 | Isamu Noguchi Museum, Long Island City, NY Noguchi Cycles, performance installation (commission) |
| 2005 | New Moves Festival of Live Art, Glasgow, UK Strange Birds, British premiere of opera installation |
| 1996 - 2003 | GAle GAtes et. al Collaborated as composer with visual artist/theatre director Michael Counts on many large-scale performance installations that fused elements of experimental theatre, opera, installation, and electronic music. Received commissioning grants from NYSCA, The Rockefeller Foundation, and the NEA. Reviewed in Art Forum, Art In America, The New York Times, PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art. |
| The World (presented a the Whitney Museum NYC 2003) So Long Ago I Can’t Remember (NYC, 2001) 1839 (NYC, 1999) Field of Mars, (NYC, 1997-8) wine-blue-open-water (NYC, 1997) I Dug a Pit (Hakushu, Japan, 1996) |
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| 2000 | The Performing Garage run of apocrypha for string quartet, electronics, light and projections in collaboration with technical artist, Jeff Sugg |
| 1997 | Belgrade International Theatre Festival, Belgrade, Serbia Invited to present to whom it may concern -- electronic score for music theatre/dance piece, directed by Phil Soltanoff. Also presented in New York City at The Kitchen. |
| 1995 | George Coates Performance Works, San Francisco Composed music for multimedia production, Twisted Pairs, directed by George Coates. |
| RESIDENCIES | |
| 2008 | Yaddo Resident Artists Program, Saratoga Springs, NY Yuanfen New Media Gallery, Beijing, China Djerassi Resident Artists Program, Woodside, CA |
| 2006/7 | Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute iEAR residency, Troy, NY |
| 2004 | JSP Audio Arts Center, Seattle, WA Grand Central Art Center, Santa Ana, CA The Experimental Television Center, Owego, NY |
| 2002 | Engine 27, New York, New York |
| 1996 - 1996 | Artist Member. GAle GAtes et al, Brooklyn, NY |
| 1996 | Min Tanaka ArtFarm, Hakushu, Japan |
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Doug Norris, “Song of Transformation,” Art New England, December/January 2006. Mark Brown, “An Elegy for the Modern Age,” Sunday Herald (Scotland), March 13, 2005. Mike McGee et al., "vessels" (32 page exhibition catalog), Grand Central Art Center Press, 2005 Helen Harrison, “Perfect Pitch,” New York Times, April 25, 2004. Christopher DeLaurenti, “Sonic Absorption,” The Stranger (Seattle), Vol. 13 No 27, March 18 – 24, 2004. Amanda MacBlaine, “Ear & Eye: MATA breaks the sound barrier,” New York Press, Vol. 16 No. 22, May 28 – June 3, 2003. Joe Diebes, “Notes On presence: A Music Installation for Phantom Chamber Orchestra,” PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art, Vol. 71, May, 2002 pp. 34-4Collaborative Work with GAle GAtes:
Tom Breidenbach, “So Long Ago I Can’t Remember,” Artforum, September, 2001. Neil Genzlinger, “It’s Strange and Unsettling Adrift Hellish Images,” The New York Times, April 20, 2001 Douglas Davis, “Drama On the Move,” Art In America, September, 1998 pp. 67 – 69. Peter Marks, “Carnival for the Senses In a Huge Warehouse,” The New York Times, December 27, 1997. .