John Toth

(1951- )

John Toth is an intermedia artist who has a 35-year history of art collaborations with composers/musicians, choreographers/dancers, directors/actors, writers/poets and teachers that began in Buffalo, NY where he received a Master's degree in art.

John has gained a national reputation for projecting multiple videos into his large-scale fabric installations that began in 1980 in collaboration with John Cage and Lejaren Hiller’s production of HRPSCHD presented at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery. John’s ongoing commitment and support to the Western New York art scene includes shows at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, the Burchfield Penney Art Center, Hallwalls, Artpark, and Castellani Art Museum.

In 1985 John moved to New York City and furthered his art collaborations that were shown at The Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Lincoln Center "Out-Of-Doors Festival," The New Museum, Experimental Intermedia Foundation, Cork Gallery, The Camera Club Gallery, 78^th Street Theater Lab, Access Theater, City Gallery, C.B.G.B.’s, SOHO Photo Gallery and Audart Gallery.

John has also established an international reputation through his intermedia fabric installations that have been presented at The National Museum of Photography, Film and Television in Bradford, England; Ringacker Hall in Saas-Fee, Switzerland; Fundacion para el Arte Contemporaneo, Mexico City; and “A” Space, Toronto, Ontario.

John’s philosophy for art making is about transformation of places. “My installation artworks have always been about creating and transforming ‘places into spaces’. My fabric installations seek to transform hard edge architectural places into ethereal spaces for viewers to have an aesthetic experience through the presentation of light and video.”

John has also made a lifetime commitment to teaching. He earneed a Ph.D. in Media and Communications at the European Graduate School in Leuk Stadt, Switzerland in 2005. He has been teaching The Arts at Hunter College in Manhattan since 2004. He has worked extensively as a teaching artist for Lincoln Center Institute, The Juilliard School, Symphony Space, Bank Street College, Bard College and Lehman College.

John’s publishing record includes peer-reviewed articles that include: The Virtual Teaching Artist: Strategies for a Museum podcast (published in the Teaching Artist Journal in 2011), The New Perception: 
Hypermediating Interdisciplinary Cultures Through Aesthetic Education (published in the Forum on Public Policy Online: A Forum of the Oxford Roundtable in 2008). John has also presented papers to the American Education Research Association in San Diego on "Seeking a Common Language Between Arts and Education" and on "Tools, Skills and Practice," using questions as a tool.

John’s work can be viewed at http://www.JohnToth.net