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John Malpede

Journal

I am a performance artist / director. My work has been presented in public art, performance art, theater, dance, and visual arts contexts: often the same work-nothing added nothing removed. From 1976 thru 1980 (and again in '94-5), I engaged in an on-going improvisational collaboration with Bill Gordh in "Dead Dog and Lonely Horse." In the early eighties I wrote and directed group pieces and a series of monologues which were described as "consistently provocative" (John Howell, ARTFORUM). Individual work includes: "Inappropriate Laughing Responses" 1980, "Generic Performance" 1983, "Out of the Public Eye" 1984, "Bronx Train" 1995., "Pre-Existing Conditions" 1997, “GET” 1999. Individual artist fellowships include new genre grants from New York State Council on the Arts, NEA,and California Arts Council.

In 1985 I formed the Los Angeles Poverty Department, the first performance group in the nation comprised primarily of homeless and formerly homeless people. Numerous collaborations: as director / and/or performer with Los Angeles Poverty Department . Received Dance Theater Workshop's (NYC) Bessie Creation Award, San Francisco Art Institute's Adeline Kent Award, Durfee Sabbatical Grant and LA Theater Alliance Ovation Award for work with Los Angeles Poverty Department.

Teaching includes UCLA Dept. Dance / World Arts, NYU Tisch School of the Arts -Dept. Undergrad Drama, and The Amsterdam School for Advanced Research in Theater and Dance (DasArts)-MFA Director's Prgm and California College of Arts and Crafts MFA Visual Arts program.

Videos include: "LAPD Inspects the Twin Cities" co-directed with Barbara Weiner and produced by KTCA Minnesota public Television (1992) and "The Hunger Artist on Sports Incredible", director (1984) produced with grant from The Kitchen, NYC.

Recent work includes solo "Pre-Existing Conditions" about the other worldly quality of recovering from surgery developed during artist residency at Headlands Center for the Arts, "Hit & Run" w/ LAPD at Skirball Cultural Center which explored, from an inner-city perspective, themes of Jewish holiday of Succoth: thanksgiving and the ephemerality of life, and "Ping Pong" with political refugees seeking political asylum in the Netherlands at Nes Theater Amsterdam. As a performer in the the work of other artists I’ ve recently been featured in two video works by Bill Viola, “Shroud” and “Quintet of the Astonished” and in “Los Biombos” directed by Peter Sellars.

Art / community involvements include participation in the steering committee of the National Performance Network (1990-2), steering committee for the 1993 Los Angeles Festival ('92- 3) and membership of the Arts Advisory Committee of the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department (1990-1). Liberty Hill Community Funding Board (1994), and currently, organizing committee member of the NATIONAL VISUAL ARTISTS GUILD and board member of Peter Sellars' Old Stories: New Lives Fndtn.