John Affolter
Artist Bio
My first introduction to art was when I was 12 years old. My professor stepfather (Oregon State U.) had been invited into a UNESCO education position in Athens, Greece, and in the late summer of 1960, the family flew to NYC. While my dad was at the United Nations building getting indoctrinated, we would go to the museums as a pastime. After that, we flew to Paris for another week of indoctrination and more museums. Finally, landing in Athens, I began a 5-year immersion in the ancient world of Greece. At 16, I bought a motorbike and used it, mostly to be cool, but also to make trips all over the mainland visiting the ancient ruins. At this age, I had no idea or interest in doing or being an artist; I was just curious and in saturation mode.
Formal training in fine art began in 1978 at the Cornish Institute, Seattle (BFA), where I worked for the Foster/White Gallery. While there, I was given the opportunity to spend the summer of 1980 living in London, England, trading work for room and board with the family that owned the “Arcade Gallery” as a gallery assistant. Before showing up at the gallery for the 12 o’clock opening, my routine was to go to the Tate and study their collections, as well as visit the Victoria and Albert and the National Gallery. I was also granted access to the Royal Academy’s exhibit floor to create a conceptual work for an exhibit where the viewer would be standing on the floor that I had made a print of using the Japanese wood block printing technique, and realize that what he/she was looking at was what he/she was standing on. I continued with an MFA at City College, NYC, in 1984. While living in my 4th and Bowery studio, I was able to get into the East Village gallery scene, get a critical review, and have two one-man exhibits in the 112 Green Street Gallery, curated by Ms. Mary Lu Knode, a contemporary historian. Additionally, I was given a one-person exhibit in a nonprofit gallery in Chicago, as well as invited to exhibit a work in Montreal, Canada that year. I was also listed in the “New York Art Review” publication. While working for 5 years in NYC, I worked at the Drawing Center, the New Museum, and taught introductory drawing and design at City College's art department with a teaching fellowship. The “Art Scene” at this time was beginning to emerge from conceptual and minimal ideas, but its influence on intellectual creative thinking was still going on in SOHO bars and hangouts. My approach to the creative process has been greatly influenced by that period. Through those early years, I developed a process that begins with an emphasis on what the intellectual foundation of a series will focus on, and then begins to journal ideas and thoughts around that focus. I have been fortunate to maintain a status as an exhibiting artist starting in NYC, and through the “café art” system, I continue to find opportunities to exhibit visual ideas and keep the creative curiosity moving forward.