Stephen Dubov

* Born 8/9/43 in Fort Jackson, South Carolina. Father was a Lieutenant in the U.S. Army, died in WWII. Mother, Lynda Dubov, is an artist with works and shows throughout the United States.
* Moved to Shreveport, Louisiana with mother, sister, grandmother.
* 1952 moved to New York, attended Steiner School, Greenwich House Pottery, Art Students League.
* Moved to Abilene, Texas, 1956. High School grad in 1960. Folks (mother re-married) owned Abilene Bookstore. Protested censorship in '59, televised on CBS.
* Kansas City Art Institute, BFA, 1964. Shows: Mid America Annual, '63 & '64. Death of JFK strongly felt. Anti-war interests. Pieces at Nelson-Rockhurst Museum, Tulsa, Dallas, Los Angeles.
* Stanford University, MFA, 1966. Full scholarship/grant. Anti-war awareness comes home to roost...
* in San Francisco for Haight/Fillmore, part of experiments with Dr. Alpert, Dr. Leary at Stanford. Large outdoor piece at Stanford Museum, other works to San Francisco, Berkeley, Los Altos Hills, Minneapolis.
* University of New Mexico, 1967. Instructor in sculpture/drawing/3-D design. Enviro/earth architecture, J. Bear, solar homes with P. Solari and domes. Received grant for large steel sculpture, housed in University museum. Pieces to Detroit, Wichita, and Denver.
* 1968, moved to San Francisco. Worked at Gumps Gallery, lived in SOMA, the old Hotel Howard at 6th & Bryant. Taught part-time for short period at Woodside Priory. In Berkeley for anti-war protests. Choreography and set design for "Open Arts," a dance company out of Berkeley.
* 1969 moved to 276 Shipley, an old warehouse, 3000 sq. feet. Began lectures at Sonoma State University, sculpture/drawing. Cambodian protest while at Sonoma as teacher. "Shut them Down," built park for Rohnert Park with students from Sonoma State. Full time at Sonoma State in 1970, drawing and sculpture. Alvin Duskin's Yerba Buena protests South of Market. Began attending local city council meetings. Spearheaded Anti-Weapons protest at Sonoma State. Moved into plastic as sculptural material, away from steel. Began video works and combined them with documentaries about SOMA and the poverty there.
* 1972, incarcerated for 3/10 of gram. Three and a half months in Federal Camp. Began self-portraits. Released. Purchased 275 Shipley (right across the street). Renovated completely into studio/home/shop, using all sharp angles, mostly 60/30/45, the outside frame was 90. Project took 3 years. Click here to see photos of Shipley Street studio.
* Impermanence of art, cardboard and floorworks on paper. Gave up steel, used cloth, degradable materials. Live performance work, videos, film. Ken Vetter (a dancer, now deceased), John and Freddie at Contact Improv, Whoopi Goldberg, before she...
* 1978, opened Upstairs Books on Folsom. 1978, retired Sonoma State. Opened Shipley Parking and an apartment house on Clara Street. Involved with local politics...
* 1979/80 opened Shipley Special Cars, classic American autos, mostly Studebakers post-war through the termination of the company. Showroom at 4th & Bryant, across the street from the Hotel Utah. Began collecting Japanese artifacts and antique watches. Involved in Sound-Works and theater groups. Assisted in the development of Halberstads, on South Van Ness, the local fencing club and school, still in operation. Began The Andulusian Rats, funding food for needy and homeless.
* 1981/1982 developed a small construction and real estate business using property South of Market. Designed local office spaces. Showed cars at the Marina, involved in regional auto shows. Joined a national organization in Washington, D.C. involved in the anti-nuclear movement.
* 1984 through 1985, incarcerated for a drug-related offense. More self-portraits.
* 1986 rebuilding lifestyle and Shipley Street studio/home
* 1987 incarcerated for possession, this sentence...Life Without Parole
* 1991 began Vens series.
* 1999 began Sculptural Boundaries Series.
* May, 2000: At a resentencing hearing held in San Francisco, Dubov's Life Without the Possibility of Parole sentence was struck down and a new sentence of thirty years was imposed.

Major Shows and Exhibitions

* Ball State, Teacher's College Museum, Muncie, IN. 1964
* University of Kansas Gallery, Lawrence, KS. 1964
* Mid America Annual, Rockhurst Nelson Museum, MO. 1965
* Dallas Museum Gallery, Dallas, TX. 1965
* St. Louis Arts Center, St. Louis, MO. 1965
* University of Tennessee Gallery, Knoxville, TN. 1966
* Stanford University Gallery, Stanford, CA. 1966
* University of Syracuse Museum, Syracuse, NY. 1967
* U. of New Mexico Fine Arts Center, Albuquerque, NM. 1967
* Arizona State University Annual Art Show, Tempe, AZ. 1967
* Abilene Art Museum, Abilene, TX. 1968
* University of Victoria Gallery, Victoria, B.C. 1969
* Worcester State Art Gallery, Worcester, MA. 1970
* Topeka Museum Gallery, Topeka, KS. 1970
* Richman Art Center, Richman, CA. 1971
* Aspen Annual, Aspen, CO. 1971
* Mills College Art Gallery, Oakland, CA. 1971
* Utah Museum, Salt Lake, UT. 1973
* Sonoma State Museum, Rohnert Park, CA. 1974
* Quay Gallery, San Francisco, CA. 1975
* Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO. 1976
* Sonoma State Art Museum, Rohnert Park, CA. 1978
* Project Artaud, San Francisco, CA. 1978
* Upstairs Books, San Francisco, CA. 1979
* M.H. deYoung Museum, San Francisco, CA. 1980
* Club Foot, San Francisco, CA. 1980
* DV8, San Francisco, CA. 1980
* Outside, New Orleans, LA. 1980
* Theater Artaud, San Francisco, CA. 1981
* End/Time, Berkeley, CA. 1982
* Gallery 16, San Francisco, CA. 1983
* Stanford Museum, Stanford, CA. 1988
* Spectrum Gallery, San Francisco, CA. 1994

Creation/Incarceration : Life's Limiting Factors

The sculptural process demands setting parameters, unlike two-dimensional forms which are more illusory, the reality of materials is restrictive. Actually the process of defining boundaries is the method of expanded vistas; as a window closes, a door opens. Of all the plastic arts, sculptors are faced with limitations; real objects always rely on the actual laws of physics and the force of gravity. After obtaining an MFA in Sculpture from Stanford in 1967, teaching sculpture at Sonoma State University for 10 years, building a live-in studio South of Market, I now find myself incarcerated for a non-violent drug crime, serving Life Without Parole. Limits define our freedom, a truism in both conceptualization and construction.

The realization that we are all faced with an erosion, and the limitations mount until the entropy overcomes, the real problem becomes finding sacramental space/energy. For myself, existing in a regulated prison environment, limited in time, materials, space, and cut off from most visual stimulation, it was at first shocking, then debilitating; became, as I moved through the emotional spectrum, interesting again and is now liberating.

Here, unlike myself of 10 years ago, I have few distractions, nothing that occupies, nothing that's more real. To make a comparison, the monastic orders of the Ashikaga period developed a vigorous austerity, (i.e. discovering that expression has tremendous power when not completely revealed, as perhaps the statue/images of antiquity that Time has mutilated, are those that move us the most) and to retreating into detailed mental preparation. In the actual process, to allow that above mentioned gravity to assert its own pull, to be wonder struck by the doing, is to be liberated, if not free.

The primary concern is working in a vacuum and again it relates to limitations, self-reliance bolstered with a well-grounded art/education channels the way I view historical process. This is an ongoing problem, one never knows where to stand, that in itself is a blockage of sorts, and to pass through is to again allow the ideas to flow, memory-material-process. I must say that having been limited to clay, I find the general non-acceptance of this material rather problematic. Clay is considered pottery not art, and if these pieces were in bronze, stone or even paper, they'd be perceived in a different light. This second-class citizenship, the craft label, is a limitation I was unaware of until faced with the difficulty of finding shows.

As a method of moving beyond the enforced restraints of the 15 hours per week of actual work time, of limitations in materials, in available space, in fact, even tightly monitored oversight of the aesthetics, I have, with so much conceptual time-on-hand, chosen an even stricter set of limits, thereby using the confinement to force focus. Focus, my way of dealing with drab/dullness. The difficulty is not the control, since it's outwardly imposed like all societal strictures, one grows able to move within the set. The real problem is the propinquity of mental effects, to allow the material/object its integrity, rather than curtailing it.

At this point, against the oft-stated opinion that my site fixtures (as I term my objects) are more developed today, which they would be in any case, confinement has focused me, yet freedom in mental areas does not mean I don't miss the other. The crux of the issue is controlling/using limitations rather than having them debilitate. I would have to say, historically, sculptors and architects have been limited by their very pursuit, only since the fall of the European aristocracies have we felt we're immune, free in this new world. Yet today we're bound by the rules of mediocrity, the reign of Nobody. To continue to create is the challenge, against all odds, it's the only freshness left.

This article originally appeared in the December 1996 edition of PRSG News
Stephen Dubov ©1996