Robert Ortbal
Artist Biography
Robert Ortbal received his MFA in ceramic sculpture from the University of California, Davis in 1989. In the 90’s his practice evolved to include large-scale installations and sculpture using a very eclectic range of materials. The work explored the distinct and interrelated worlds of natural phenomena and human nature and was exhibited widely to include venues like the Berkeley Art Museum, The Oakland Museum of California, San Francisco Art Commission Gallery, San Jose Insistute of Contemporary Art, SFMOMA Artists Gallery, Richmond Art Center, Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, 9-1-1 Media Arts Center, Seattle, Gallery Paule Anglim, Steven Wirtz Gallery, Refusalon and Four Walls.
Before joining the faculty at the California State University, Sacramento in 2005, where he is an Associate Professor in Sculpture, he taught at Dominican University and several other Colleges and Universities in the Bay Area. Recently, he has had solo shows at the Weigand Gallery at Notre Dame de Namur University, California State University, Stanislaus, Traywick Contemporary and is represented by the JayJay Gallery in Sacramento where he will be had his third solo show this spring. Six of his solo shows have been documented with fully illustrated catalogs. Art Ltd., Artweek, SquareCylinder, SF Chronicle, Sacramento Bee, San Jose Mercury News and many others have reviewed his shows and he has been the subject of in-depth artist profiles for Art Ltd. and the Sacramento Bee. Public art commissions have been completed for the Oakland International Airport, UC Davis Medical Center and the City of Emeryville. In 2004 he was awarded a Eureka Fellowship from the Fleishhacker Foundation in San Francisco and has been an artist in residence at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, Edgecomb, ME, Sculpture Space, Utica, NY and most recently the Jordan Schnitzer Printmaking Residency at Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, Otis, OR.
Categories: Artists, mixed media, sculpture
