About | bob trotman

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2010-2011	North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC
2008-2009	Business as Usual, Staniar Gallery, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, VA (travels to Cameron Art Museum, Greenville County Museum of Art, and Mint Museum of Art)
2006	Frist Center for Visual Art, Gordon Project Gallery, Nashville, Tennessee
2004	Recent Work, Hodges Taylor Gallery, Charlotte, North Carolina
2002	Model Citizens, Visual Arts Center of Richmond, Richmond, Virginia
2001	Falk Gallery, Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, North Carolina
2001	After the Fall, Franklin Parrasch Gallery, New York, New York
2000	Recent Work, Hodges Taylor Gallery, Charlotte, North Carolina
1998	Eight Figures, Franklin Parrasch Gallery, New York, New York
1996	Recent Work, Franklin Parrasch Gallery, New York, New York
1995-1996	ArtCurrents 20: Bob Trotman, Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, North Carolina
1994	Bob Trotman: A Retrospective of Furniture and Sculpture, Visual Arts Program, NC State University, Raleigh, North Carolina
1994	New Work, Franklin Parrasch Gallery, New York, New York
1993	Sculpture, Sandler Hudson Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia
1992	Sculpture, Nexus Contemporary Art Center, Atlanta, Georgia

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2007	Measure of All Things: The Human Form., Cameron Art Museum, Wilmington, North Carolina
2007	The Liberated Eye: American Modernisms., Weatherspoon Art Museum. Greensboro, North Carolina
2005	From the Neck Up, Franklin Parrasch Gallery New York, New York
2004	Food Matters, Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, New York
2004	Revelations, Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, North Carolina
1990-1993	Art That Works, (Lloyd Herman, curator) traveled U.S.
1986	Poetry of the Physical, (Paul Smith, curator), traveled U.S.

SELECTED COLLECTIONS

North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, North Carolina
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia
Museum of Art and Design, New York, New York
Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island
The Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, North Carolina
The Mint Museum of Craft and Design, Charlotte, North Carolina
Museum of Art, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona
The Vice-President’s Residence, Washington, DC
Asheville Art Museum, Asheville, North Carolina
Hickory Museum of Art, Hickory, North Carolina
Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Weatherspoon Museum of Art, Greensboro, North Carolina
Sydney and Francis Lewis Collection, Richmond, Virginia
Gregg Museum of Art and Design, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina

GRANTS AND AWARDS

2006, 2008	United States Artists, Fellowship Nominee
1984,1995,2000	North Carolina Artists Fellowship
1984, 1988	National Endowment for the Arts Visual Artist Fellowship

PERSONAL

Born Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 1947

EDUCATION

1965-1969	B.A. Philosophy, Magna cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa, Washington and Lee University
1988	Francisco Rivera, The Sculpture Center, New York, New York
1986	Robert Morris, The Atlantic Center for the Arts, New Smyrna Beach, Florida
1985	James Surls, The Atlantic Center for the Arts, New Smyrna Beach, Florida
1977	Sam Maloof, Penland School of Crafts, Penland, North Carolina
1976	Jon Brooks, Penland School of Crafts, Penland, North Carolina

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Brennan, Anne. 1995-1996 North Carolina Arts Council Fellowship Recipients Exhibition. (Wilmington:St. John’s Museum of Art) pp.37-39.

Brown, Charlotte, V., et al. Bob Trotman: A Retrospective of Furniture and Sculpture. (Raleigh:North Carolina State University Visual Arts Program, 1994)

Brown, Patricia Leigh. “They Ride the New Wave in Furniture”, The Philadelphia Inquirer, April 21, 1985, pp.9-10.

Campbell, Omnese. Bob Trotman/Ginny Ruffner, ARTPapers, vol.19, no.3, (April-May 1995) P.54

Castle, Wendell. “The Leading Edge”. Popular Mechanics. November 1986, pp.88,90.

Giovannini, Joseph, “Chairs that Roar”, The New York Times, March 19, 1987, C-1

Hanzal, Carla. “Interview with Bob Trotman.” Archives of American Art. Smithsonian Institution. 2005.

Heartney, Eleanor, “Art and the Spiritual”, Thresholds, South Carolina Arts Commission, 2003.p. 23

Herman, Lloyd E., Art that Works:The Decorative Arts of the Eighties, Crafted in America. (Seattle:University of Washington Press, 1990) p.35.

Huber Chris. “North Carolina Artist Exhibition 1990.” Preview. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, Summer 1990) Cover and pp. 2-5.

Hull, James.” Bob Trotman: Recent Work.”ARTPapers, vol.17, no.6

James, Curtia. “Bob Trotman at Hand Workshop Art Center”. Review. ARTPapers, January, 2003.

Joslin, Nell. "Illusions Carved in Wood." Sunday Feature. The News and Observer, (May 9, 2004), Raleigh.

Kistler, Ashley.”Bob Trotman:Model Citizens.” Essay. Hand Workshop Art Center. Richmond, 2002.

Koplos, Janet. “Bob Trotman at Franklin Parrasch”, Review, Art In America, October 2001, pp.168-169.

Leach, Mark R. “ArtCurrents 20:Bob Trotman’, Interview. (Charlotte: Mint Museum of Art)

MacDougall, Frances M. “Philosophical Furniture”, Southern Accents, (November-December 1995) pp.116-122.

Meyer, Jon. “1988 Mint Museum of Art Biennial”. ArtNews, vol. 87, no. 7 (Sept 1988) p. 176

Ryan, Dinah. “Bob Trotman at Hand Workshop Art Center”. Review. Sculpture. Dec 2002.

Ryan, Dinah, et al. Bob Trotman Business as Usual, exhibition catalogue (Staniar Gallery, Washington and Lee University)

“Post Conventional Generativity”. Review. ARTPapers, (Nov-Dec 2006) p.59.

Scala, Mark W. "Bob Trotman: Model Citizens". Essay. Frist Center for Visual Arts. Nashville, 2006

Smith, Paul J. et al. The Poetry of the Physical (New York: American Craft Museum, 1986) Craft Today USA (New York: American Craft Museum, 1989) p. 77.

Tilly, Katie. “Bob Trotman:Woodworker Plus”. North Carolina Homes and Gardens, vol.2, no.2 (March-April 1991) p.127.

Tyndall, Katie.” Sitting Pretty with Art Furniture”, Insight, vol.2, no.41 (October 134, 1986) pp. 64-65.

White Clarence D. “The Furniture/Sculpture Nexus,” ARTPapers, vol.16,no.4, (Nov-Dec 1992) p.31.

Quotes

"Figureheads on a clipper ship bound for purgatory!"
-Mark Washburn, Charlotte Observer

"[Art] must be the axe for the frozen sea within us."
Franz Kafka (1883-1924)

As a figurative sculptor my concern is the exploration, interpretation, and representation of the human body as a primal medium for projecting thought and feeling: in the expressive language of its poses and dress, its gestures, its facial expressions, and in its disposition in relation to its surroundings. Of the many possibilities open to me, I am most interested in expressions of alienation: alienation of the self from society, from the physical environment, and even of the self from itself. Not only is this feeling resonant for me personally, but, I believe, by way of attempts to avoid it, it is responsible for much of our social behavior. For me the expression of alienation is more penetrating with a certain amount of ironic humor. Since I work primarily in wood, I see my efforts in relation to the vernacular traditions of the carved religious figures, ships' figureheads, and the so-called "show figures" found in the nineteenth century outside shops or in circus displays. I am concerned, however. with contemporary sensibility, even if I approach it through what some might consider an archaic medium. My subjects are confronted with dilemmas they can neither escape nor understand, and wood, through its organic warmth, its quirks, and flaws gives their quandaries an immediacy they might not otherwise have.

Biography

Bob Trotman was born in Winston-Salem, NC in 1947. He received a B.A. in philosophy from Washington and Lee University and for 30 years has maintained a studio in the foothills of Western North Carolina. Self-taught in art, he has received two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, three from the North Carolina Arts Council, and, most recently, a nomination for a United States Artist Fellowship. His work is in the permanent collections of the Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, The North Carolina Museum of Art, The Weatherspoon Museum of Art, The Mint Museum of Art, The Museum of Art of the Rhode Island School of Design, and The Museum of Art and Design in New York among others.