Artist Statement:

In an era of unbridled technological advancement and a constantly accelerating environment of commerce, culture, lifestyles and information, Santer’s paintings utilize elements of massive highway systems to impart a subtle mixture of speed, complexity, alienation and loss of control. By incorporating the romantic language of the mythologized “American Dream” in painted letters that traverse his highway scenes like the words of Beat legend, Jack Kerouac, Santer captures the freedom and possibility offered by the open, American road.

Though his art has a hopeful element that seems to sympathize with baby-boom optimism, Santer always brings us back to reality, playfully chiding us for our hubris by referencing the insurmountable power of natural forces. In some works, romantic phrases trail of toward the horizon only to be swept up by a tornado or dropped into a canyon from the edge of a road to nowhere; In others, highways, those facilitators of speed, connectivity and efficiency, entangle in confusing knots that resemble the unchecked growth of an asphalt heartworm.

"This body of work began with simple drawing studies of highway interchanges under construction. Before long, I was manipulating and fragmenting them into isolated knots of empty overpasses, seemingly being constructed and abandoned at the same time. The paintings that followed seemed to develop with inherent contradictions contained within: Road completions through misalignment, concrete dressed with the colors and words of fantasy, romanticism meeting the cold, hard pavement.”

“I associate these images with the experience of growing up in a modern culture of speed that in itself is full of contradiction, where techno-progress can bring both efficiency and connectedness while at the same time confusion and isolation, where the acceleration of everything begets equal measures of hope and fear, and where the future seems ready to demand what cannot possibly achieved: ‘Instant Harmony,’ ‘Perfect Love.’”

“The dream of a perfected future, given birth by technology, seems to mirror the optimism and fantasy of a new romance. This notion has me equally amused and intrigued, which moves me to cloak our iconic ribbons of progress with a sweet coating of sardonic candy.”
 

Biography

EDUCATION

1994  MFA, Ohio University, Athens, OH
1989  BFA, The University of Dayton, Dayton, OH


SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2006                Gallery Katz, Boston, MA

2005                Parkersburg Art Center, Parkersburg, WV

2004                Circa Gallery, Minneapolis, MN

2002                Class of 1925 Gallery, The University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI   

2001                Circa Gallery, Minneapolis, MN 

1997                Wehrle Gallery, Ohio Dominican College, Columbus, OH

1996                Gallery Americas, Carrboro, NC

1994                Agape Galleries, Malvern, PA

                       Esther Allen Grier Museum Gallery, University of Rio Grande, Rio Grande,

                       OH

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS        

2007       Viveza, Seattle, WA

2006       Museum of Fine Arts at Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL

2005       Institute of Noetic Sciences, Petaluma, CA

2004       Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Minneapolis, MN

              Finer Things Gallery, Nashville, TN

2003       Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis, MN

              The Minnetonka Center for the Arts, Wayzata, MN

              Fresh Paint Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

2002       The Sonoma Museum of Visual Arts, Santa Rosa, CA

              Minnesota State Arts Board, St. Paul, MN

2001       Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago, IL

              Millworks Gallery, Akron, OH

2000       Art & Cultural Center, Fallbrook, CA

1999       Bloomington Art Center, Bloomington, MN

1998       Alder Gallery, Eugene, OR

              Phipps Center for the Arts, Gallery II, Hudson, WI          

1997       Nicollet LRC Gallery, Nicollet College, Rhinelander, WI

1996       Graham Center, Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL 

1994       Seigfred Gallery, Ohio University, Athens, OH

              Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, WV

1993       Trumbull Art Gallery, Warren, OH

              The Cultural Center, Charleston, WV

1992       Peace Center for the Performing Arts, Greenville, SC

              Dana Fine Arts Gallery, Atlanta, GA

COLLECTIONS

General Mills Corporation, Golden Valley, MN

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom, LLP, Los Angeles, CA

USB, Boston, MA

Wellington Management, Boston, MA


AWARDS

2003                MCAD/McKnight Fellowship for Visual Artists, Minneapolis, MN

2000                Minnesota State Arts Board, Career Opportunity Grant, St. Paul, MN

                       Sotheby’s/Artlink Young Art International 2000, New York, NY

1993                Lancaster Music and Arts Festival ‘93, Visiting Artists Fellowship,

                       Lancaster, OH

1992-94           Ohio University, Teaching Associateship, Athens, OH

1992                Binney and Smith Company, Artist’s Grant, Easton, PA


PUBLICATIONS

New American Paintings (volume 47), The Open Studios Press, Boston, MA, 2003

Abbe, Mary, “Gallery Roundup,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, February,  2001.

Donahue, Victoria, Exhibition Review of “Premonitions,” The Philadelphia Enquirer, July, 1994.

Holt, Kjrsten, “Weekend Countdown - 10 Great Things To Do,” (#3) Saint Paul Pioneer Press, February, 2001.

Marten, Bernadette, “Soul Painting,” University of Dayton Quarterly, Summer 1998.McIntosh, Chris, “Artist-In-Residence Paints the Town,” Lancaster Eagle-Gazette, July, 1993.

McQuaid, Kate, “Gallery Pick,” The Boston Globe, March 9, 2006

Stewart, Amy, “Paintings Hypnotize Audience,” Exhibition Review, Ohio University Post, April,1994.

Towner, Wayne, “Works of Inspiration,” The Parkersburg News, February,1998.