The next Artist You Need To Know is Roger Selden.
Selden (born 1945) is a visual artist from the United States whose artworks straddle abstraction and more illustrative – even cartoonish – themes. He’s focused primarily on painting and has also produced a number of prints, but has also worked in graphic and commercial fields, notably as a product designer for manufacturers of drinking glasses (such as Ritzenhoff Cristal GmbH in Germany), tableware, bath accessories, and motorcycles (for the well known and respected Ducati Motor Holding SpA in Bologna, Italy), among many others.
The words of Peter Frank : “Certain of Selden’s works are puzzling and hermetic in their imagery and organization, while others can be understood as quickly as a blinking light at a train crossing. Certain works are crowded with ideas and gestures while others are as clean and elegant as a commercial designer’s sketch. This visual schizophrenia comes about because Selden has not stifled one or another contrasting aspect of his personality for dogma’s sake, but has put the various dialectical contradictions of his native esthetic to work for art’s sake. Selden is confident enough in the eventuality of synthesis not to worry about too of his artworks not resembling one another.”
Selden was a student at the Brooklyn Museum (1957 to 1962) and would later earn a BFA from Temple University’s Tyler School of Fine Arts in 1966. Moving to Paris, in 1964 Selden studied painting and graphics in Paris with Antonio Frasconi and George McNeil. He would also receive an MFA (in 1968) from the Tyler School of Fine Arts in Rome, Italy.
Since 1971 Selden (often in collaboration with Renato and Giorgio Cardazzo of the Naviglio Gallery of Modern Art in Milan, Italy) has had more than 100 one-man shows in Europe and the United States : these include shows at the Michael Lord Gallery (Milwaukee, USA), PS Gallery (Flein, Germany), Hausamann Gallery (Cortina, Italy) and the Venice Design Art Gallery (Venice, Italy).
Selden has also been featured in solo exhibitions at some of the most significant art fairs in the world, including Art Basel, Fiac Paris, ArteFiera Bologna, Chicago Art Fair, Arco Madrid and the Cologne Art Fair.
His artistic and design work has also branched out into glass window projects, and among his significant work in this media a highlight is how he designed the 23 windows of the Synagogue Hechal David u-Mordechai in Milan, Italy.
He divides his time between New York (his hometown) and Milan, Italy.
Many more of his artworks can be seen here.