Artists - CVZ Contemporary

Robert Dimin, born 1980, studied Fine Art, Photography, and Art History at Parsons/The New School in New York beginning in the late nineties and at present is a M.F.A. student in Combined Media at UPenn. CVZ Contemporary in Soho, New York has represented Dimin since the gallery opened in 2004. In addition to exhibiting in New York since 2000, Dimin is recognized nationally and internationally for his collage aesthetic and installations. In 2007 Ana Finel Honigman named Dimin a top artist working with recycled materials on Saatchi Online and in 2008 Dimin created a site-specific installation at the Wiener Künstlerhaus during the Vienna Biennale. He firmly believes that it is the fundamental responsibility of the artist to record and reflect upon life and its inherent visual forms. More often this is manifested in collages or assemblages. However, Dimin feels it is important to understand the interdisciplinary nature of art in this contemporary moment and this brings him out of his cut/paste aesthetic into a more formal and theoretical interpretation of the practice of art.

Robert Dimin was born on April 8th, 1980 in New York. He received formal training in photography at the Parsons School of Design, and had his first solo exhibition in May, 2002 at the first Tribeca Film Festival. This exhibition, entitled A Tribute to Beauty, featured classically posed nudes, influenced by the paintings of Amadeo Modigliani, in glossy, modern photographs that depict a contemporary, American aesthetic of beauty. Dimin's photographic work has been represented by CVZ since the galleries inception in 2004.

Dimin's film, The White Runway, an all access safari into the fashion world, was selected to be in the 2003 Woodstock Film Festival. The film tested the boundaries of traditional filmmaking and was highly influenced by the aesthetics of reality fashion television.

While attending Parsons, Dimin began working as the Associate Photo Editor at VH1, and pursued various other projects in media. Dimin's work in commercial photography, undoubtedly informs his art. He firmly believes that it is the fundamental responsibility of the artist to record and reflect upon life and its inherent visual forms. Struck by the implications of our media saturated environment, Dimin's work scrutinizes the semiotics of consumerism. In his grid-patterned photographs featuring the logos of fashion houses such as Prada and Marc Jacobs, Dimin cleverly, and humorously reveals some troubling innuendos of branding.

This exhibition is representational of the way I see the world—with blurred color, sloppy cuts and pastings—and the occasional idealized moment of perfection. This is how I have come to understand our globalized society since my realization that as an artist I am an interpreter and fosterer of intellectual agency and beauty. Some of the works in this show are raw and filled with sarcasm, while others are simple and about the pleasure of viewing. In this selection of works roughly spanning the last ten years, my hope is for the viewer to understand our image conscious contemporary moment a bit differently than before—discerning uncanny connections or simply enjoying the surface.

The commercial bombardment of imagery has affected the way people view photography and film. My work is a direct response to this. I use my media both to comment aesthetically on history and pop culture as well as simply to document the world around me. I ultimately desire to make feature narrative films in order to tell the stories that I have learned through my life experiences. When my photographs don't simply come from life, they are to comment on the photographic medium. I play with lighting and film stock to make my work more authentic than the formulaic images with which people are familiar. I hope to make people aware of photography and film as an expressive fine art because today their purposes are used primarily to sell products.

EDUCATION

Parsons School of Design, Photography
CORPORATE WORK

CEO and Founder, Lesser Gods Productions, New York, NY, 2001-present
Directed and produced a documentary film, The White Runway, which appeared in the Woodstock Film Festival, 2003.
Worked as part of the creative process for The Chappelle Show and with Robert Smigel for SNL.
Directed and produced two films for the designer, Charlotte .
Fashion and Corporate Photography for clients such as: MTV Networks, WWD, Trace Magazine, Muscle and Fitness Magazine, Label NYC, Fountains of Wayne, Nylon Magazine, Troubador Magazine sponsored by the Princeton Institute for International & Regional Studies, Vasseur Esquivel, Vlassis Holevas, Vogue Nippon, World Gym, Soho and Miami, Zina Jeans, and Princeton University, Department of Art and Archaeology
Photographic Documentaries Completed: New York Street Prostitutes and New Jersey Prison System; Present Work: People
Associate Photo Editor, VH1, New York, NY, 2000-2001
Intern, Stockland Martel, 1999-2000
EXHIBITIONS

CVZ Contemporary @ B.E.D., Chelsea, New York, 6/1/ 2005
CVZ Contemporary, Soho, New York, 12/14/2004 - present
Woodstock Film Festival, Woodstock, New York, The White Runway, 9/19/2003
Soho House, Meatpacking District, New York, The White Runway, 9/9/2003
The Time is Always Now Gallery, Soho, New York, 2002-2003
Gallery Stendhal and Hal Katzen, Tribeca, New York, "A Tribute to Beauty," 5/2-18/ 2002
Deepdale Gallery, NY, NY, 12/1-20/2000

PUBLICATIONS

26: collages and fun, works by Robert Dimin, Lesser Gods Publications, 2006.