j o h n f e o d o r o v

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Bio

Born in Los Angeles of mixed Native and European American heritage, John Feodorov spent summers at his grandparent’s homestead in the “White Horse” region of New Mexico.  This time spent between the Navajo reservation and the California suburbs of Whittier continues to have an important influence on his work. Feodorov often utilizes pop culture detritus, as well as sound and video, to create what he considers contemporary “sacred” spaces in order to question ideas of spirituality, identity and place. In addition, his paintings and drawings are experiments in creating hybrid mythical iconographies.

Feodorov was featured in the first season of the PBS television series, “Art21: Art for the 21st Century” as well as in the companion book published by Harry N. Abrams. He has served as an Arts Commissioner for the City of Seattle and currently teaches as an Assistant Professor of Art at Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies at Western Washington University in Bellingham Washington. In addition, he is also a musician and songwriter. To hear John Feodorov's music projects, please click here.

 

Statement

My work reflects my interest in the relentless human search for meaning and identity. While my works do not embrace any one belief or theory, I see them as artifacts of contemporary desperation—a search for a Something, an Other, that may or may not exist. The 2-D works are pictorial experiments that are meant to act as iconic catalysts for the possible creation of new mythologies. Intentionally ambiguous and dreamlike, they imply a meaningful narrative that does not exist outside the mind of the viewer. The installations, assemblages and video works on the other hand could be interpreted as representing failed attempts to resolve the contradictions between a desire for connection and growing global capitalism--again, they are acts of desperation.

Several years ago, I visited the Anasazi ruins at Chaco Canyon, near my family’s land in New Mexico. This was during the much-hyped Harmonic Convergence when people were gathering at numerous traditional sacred sites around the world. Along the inside perimeter of one of the large kivas, a throng of tie-dyed spiritual enthusiasts formed a circle while sitting in lotus position. At the axis, they had erected a plastic totem pole, an object possessing no significance to the native peoples of the Southwest. Their act, while well intentioned, seemed more like an act of spiritual despondency than of connection. It is this kind of sincere yet misguided event that interests me as an artist.