Tim Rollins and K.O.S.
Tim Rollins (1955 – December 26, 2017) was an American artist who together with the art collaborative K.O.S. formed the art-group Tim Rollins and K.O.S (Kids of Survival).[1][2]
Biography
Rollins studied fine art at the University of Maine and earned a BFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York (1975–77).[citation needed]
After graduate studies in art education and philosophy at New York University (1977 and 1979), Rollins began teaching art for middle school students in a South Bronx public school.[3] In 1984, he launched the "Art and Knowledge Workshop" in the Bronx together with a group of at-risk students who called themselves K.O.S. (Kids of Survival).[4]
Since the founding of the Art & Knowledge Workshop in 1982, Tim Rollins & K.O.S. have produced allegorical paintings, sculptures and drawings by mining the vast wealth of printed matter - from the popular to the arcane, from the minor to the canonical, from legal documents to comic books (areas in no way mutually exclusive in Rollins & K.O.S.'s view) - which are themselves understood as political allegories.[5]
The group has exhibited worldwide having participated in two Whitney Biennials (1985, 1991), Documenta (1987), the Venice Biennale (1988), the Carnegie International (1988) and in solo exhibitions at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN (1988); Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA (1988); Dia Art Foundation, New York, NY (1989); Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT (1990); Museum für Gegenwärtskunst Basel, Switzerland (1990); Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (1990); and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC (1992).[citation needed]
Their work can be seen in public collections including the Museum of Modern Art, NY, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Tate Gallery, London. In February 2009, a retrospective survey of the groups' work opened at The Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College.
The current members of K.O.S., and at the time of Rollins' death at age 62 in December 2017, include:
- Angel Abreu (born 1974)
- Jorge Abreu (born 1979)
- Robert Branch (born 1977)
- Ala Ebtekar (born 1978)
- Ricardo Nelson Savinon (born 1971)
- Noe Sosa (born 1992)
- Logan Swedick (born 1995)
References
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- ^ "Artist Tim Rollins, a Champion of Collaboration and a Powerful Evangelist for Art Education, Has Died at 62". artnet News. 2017-12-27. Retrieved 2017-12-28.
- ^ Hyperallergic.com, Artist Tim Robbins obituary
- ^ Falconer, Morgan, Grove Art Online, Oxford University Press, 2009
- ^ http://www.xavierhufkens.com/artists/tim-rollins-and-kos
- ^ Myoda, Paul, Tim Rollins and K.O.S. at Mary Boone Gallery, Frieze Magazine, May 1995.
