Dario Robleto (born 1972) is an American transdisciplinary artist, researcher, writer, and teacher. His research-driven practice results in intricately handcrafted objects that reflect his exploration of music, popular culture, science, war, and American history.
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Robleto was born in San Antonio, Texas, in 1972 and he received his BFA from the University of Texas at San Antonio in 1997.
Robleto uses unexpected materials such as melted vinyl records, dinosaur bones, meteorites, glass produced by atomic explosions, and lost heartbeat recordings from the 19th century. He transforms them into delicately layered objects that are sincere and personal meditations on love, death, eroding memory, and healing.
Robleto has been participating in activities outside the art world. In 2015, he was appointed as Artist in Residence in Neuroaesthetics at the University of Houston's Cullen College of Engineering,[1] and he was invited to co-organize the 2016 International Conference on Mobile Brain-Body Imaging and the Neuroscience of Art, Innovation, and Creativity,[2] he is co-organizing year 2 of the conference in 2017.
In 2015, Robleto and Contreras-Vidal co-authored a scholarly paper titled "Your Brain on Art: Emergent Cortical Dynamics During Aesthetic Experiences”. The study considered “the brain response to conceptual art [as] studied with mobile electroencephalography (EEG) to examine the neural basis of aesthetic experiences.”[3] In February 2016, Robleto was co-editor of "Mobile Brain/Body Imaging and the Neuroscience of Art, Innovation and Creativity" in a special issue of the science journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.[4]
Robleto is currently one of six artists in the Artists-in-Residence program at the prestigious SETI Institute[5] in Mountain View, California, and in 2015, he joined a distinguished team of scientists as the artistic consultant on the Breakthrough Initiatives, which is the most extensive effort to find intelligent life beyond Earth to date. Specifically, Robleto will work on the Breakthrough Message project—a multi-national effort that aims to encourage intellectual and technical debate about how and what to communicate if the current search for intelligent beings beyond Earth is successful.
Robleto has been a visiting artist and lecturer at many universities and institutions including Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts; and the Hubble Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Maryland. In 2013, he served as the California College of the Arts Viola Frey Distinguished Visiting Professor, in Oakland, California. From 2018 to 2023, Robleto served as the first Artist-at-Large at Northwestern University's McCormick School of Engineering and Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Evanston, Illinois.[6]
Awards have included the 2004 International Association of Art Critics Award for best exhibition in a commercial gallery at the national level. The exhibition was Roses in the Hospital / Men Are The New Women at Inman Gallery in 2003. In 2007 he was a recipient of the Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant and in 2009 he was a recipient of the USA Rasmuson Fellowship. Robleto has been a research fellow and resident at institutions such as the Menil Collection (2014); Rice University (2013–14); and the Smithsonian Museum of American History (2011). He served as the 2016 Texas State Artist Laureate, he currently sits on the advisory board at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University and is on the Boston Institute of Contemporary Art Teen Conference Advisory Committee.
Robleto has participated in many residencies including the Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, California, in 2014; and Artpace, San Antonio, Texas, in 2000. In 2017 he was chosen as an Artist in Residence at the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation.
His work has been profiled in numerous publications and media including Radiolab,[7] Krista Tippet's On Being,[8] the New York Times,[9] and the New York Times Science Section.[10]
Robleto's diptych The First Time, The Heart (First Pulse, Flatline), 2017 was awarded a “Prix de Print” award. The Prix de Print is a bimonthly competition, in which a single work is selected by an outside juror to be the subject of a brief essay. Robleto's diptych recalls the method of the first sphygmograph, a technology that made its first marks in soot using a human hair as a stylus, and the data it produced to suggest the life cycle, from the first pulse to the final flat line. Prix de Print
Selected solo exhibitions
2023
- The Heart’s Knowledge: Science and Empathy in the Art of Dario Robleto, The Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois
2019
- Unknown and Solitary Seas (Dreams and Emotions of the 19th Century), Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
2018
- Ancient Beacons Long for Notice, McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas
2014
- Setlists For a Setting Sun, The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Maryland
- The Boundary of Life is Quietly Crossed, The Menil Collection, Houston, Texas
2012
- The Prelives of the Blues, New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, Louisiana
2011
- Survival Does Not Lie in the Heavens, Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, Iowa
- An Instinct Toward Life, Denver Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver, Colorado
2008
- Alloy of Love, The Francis Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York; traveled to the Frye Art Museum, Seattle, Washington
2006
- Chrysanthemum Anthems, Weatherspoon Art Museum, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, North Carolina; traveled to Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut; Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, Tennessee
2003
- Say Goodbye to Substance, Whitney Museum of American Art at Altria, New York, New York
Selected group exhibitions
2023-2024
2019
- In Plain Sight, Mills College Art Museum, Oakland, California
- The Sorcerer's Burden: Contemporary Art And The Anthropological Turn, The Contemporary Austin, Austin, Texas
- Jewels In The Concrete, Ruby City, San Antonio, Texas
- Cosmic Rhythm Vibrations, Nasher Museum of Art, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina
- Ghostly Traces: Memory and Mortality in Contemporary Photography, Vicki Myhren Gallery at University of Denver, Denver, Colorado
- The Sheltering Sky, Palo Alto Art Center, Palo Alto, California
- Fear and Wonder: Sublime Landscapes on Paper, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
2018
- Under Construction: Collage from The Mint Museum, Charlotte, North Carolina
- People Get Ready: Building a Contemporary Collection, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina
- Texas, Philip Martin Gallery, Los Angeles, California
- Copy, Translate, Repeat: Contemporary Art from the Coleccion Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, Hunter College, 205 Hudson Gallery, New York, New York
2017
- Future Shock, SITE Santa Fe, Santa Fe, New Mexico
- Southern Accent: Seeking the American South in Contemporary Art, Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Kentucky
- If You Remember, I'll Remember, Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, North Western University, Evanston, Illinois
- Prospect 4: The Lotus In Spite of the Swamp, New Orleans, Louisiana
2016
- The Future We Remember, Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem, North Carolina
- Explode Every Day: An Inquiry into the Phenomena of Wonder, MASS MoCA, North Adams, Massachusetts
- Southern Accent: Seeking the American South in Contemporary Art, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina
2015
- 20 Years/20 Shows, SITE Santa Fe, Santa Fe, New Mexico
2014
- DIRGE: Reflections on (Life and) Death, Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland, Ohio
2013
- MORE LOVE ART, POLITICS, and SHARING Since the 1990s, Ackland Museum of Art, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina; traveled to Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art, Nashville, Tennessee
2012
- More Real? Art in the Age of Truthiness, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, Minnesota; traveled to SITE Santa Fe, Santa Fe, New Mexico
2011
- The Spectacular of Vernacular, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota; traveled to Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Texas; Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, New Jersey; Ackland Art Museum, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
2010
- The Record: Contemporary ART and VINYL, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina; traveled to Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Massachusetts; Miami Art Museum, Miami, Florida; Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington
2008
- The Old, Weird America, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Texas; traveled to DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, Massachusetts; Frye Art Museum, Seattle, Washington
2004
- 2004 Biennial Exhibition, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York
Publications: author and co-author
2019
- Contreras-Vidal J.L., Robleto, D., Jesus G. Cruz-Garza J.G., José M. Azorín J.M., Nam, C.S., "Mobile Brain-Body Imaging and the Neuroscience of Art, Innovation and Creativity (Springer Series on Bio- and Neurosystems)" Springer, Cham [13]
- Cruz-Garza J.G., Chatufale G., Robleto D., Contreras-Vidal J.L. "Your Brain on Art: A New Paradigm to Study Artistic Creativity Based on the ‘Exquisite Corpse’ Using Mobile Brain-Body Imaging." Brain Art. Nijholt A. (eds) Springer, Cham [14]
- The Heart's Knowledge Will Never Decay, Designing For Empathy: Perspectives On the Museum Experience, edited by. Elif M. Gokcigdem, 18-29. Rowman & Littlefield, 2019 [15]
- Contreras-Vidal, Jose L., Jeannie Kever, Dario Robleto, and James Rosengren. "At the Crossroads of Art and Science: Neuroaesthetics Begins to Come into Its Own," Leonardo, Volume 52, Issue 1, February 1 [16]
2018
- Berry, Ian, Rebecca McNamara. Accelerate No.2. Saratoga Springs, New York. The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery [17]
- Montgomery, Harper. Copy, Translate, Repeat: Contemporary Art from the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros. New York, New York. Hunter College Art Galleries [18]
2017
- Contreras-Vidal, Jose Luis, Robleto, Dario. “Looking Under the Sacred Rock: How Collaborations between Scientists and Artists Can More Deeply Probe the Mysteries of Creativity,” SCIART Magazine, August [19]
- Contreras-Vidal, Kever, Robleto, and Rosengren, James. “At the Crossroads of Art and Science: Neuroaesthetics Begins to Come into Its Own,” Leonardo, June 20
- Cruz-Garza, Brantley, Nakagome, Kontson, Megjhani, Robleto, Contreras-Vidal. “Deployment of Mobile EEG Technology in an Art Museum Setting: Evaluation of Signal Quality and Usability,” Frontiers In Human Neuroscience, November 10 [20]
2016
- "Dreams, as Faithful as Flames.” Paper presented at International Conference on Mobile Brain-Body Imaging and The Neuroscience of Art, Innovation and Creativity, Cancun, Mexico, July [21]
- “Honky-Tonks and Hospices,” Southern Accent: Seeking the American South in Contemporary Art (Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, exhibition catalogue)[22]
- Gramann, Contreras-Vidal, Makeig, Robleto, Brandt, Frazier and Schmuckli. “Mobile Brain/Body Imaging and the Neuroscience of Art, Innovation and Creativity,” Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, February
2015
- Kontson, Megjhani, Brantley, Cruz-Garza, Nakagome, Robleto, White, Civillico and Contreras-Vidal. “Your Brain on Art: Emergent Cortical Dynamics During Aesthetic Experiences,” Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, November 18 [23]
2014
- White and Robleto. The Boundary of Life Is Quietly Crossed. (The Menil Collection, Houston Texas, exhibition brochure).
2013
- “If You Remember, I'll Remember,” Disembodied Portraits: Portrait Miniatures and Their Contemporary Relatives (The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio, exhibition catalogue) [24]
2012
- “Lunge For Love As If It Were Air,” More Love: ART, POLITICS and SHARING Since the 1990s (Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, exhibition catalogue) [25]
2010
- “Every Record, Everywhere, Is Playing Our Song Right Now,” The Record: Contemporary Art and Vinyl (Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, exhibition catalogue) [26]
2001
- “When You Cry, I Only Love You More,” ArtLies, Fall. pp 3–7 [27]
1999
- Albright–Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York
- Altoids Curiously Strong Collection/New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, New York
- Austin Museum of Art, Austin, Texas
- Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, New York, New York
- Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, Iowa
- Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.
- Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas, Austin, Texas
- Le Centre d'Art Contemporain, Montpellier, France
- Linda Pace Foundation, San Antonio, Texas
- Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California
- Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois
- Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, California
- Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina
- New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, Louisiana
- The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Maryland
- The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum, Saratoga Springs, New York
- The Menil Collection, Houston, Texas
- The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
- Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita State University, Wichita, Kansas
- Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York
"Schedule". Your Brain on Art Conference. 2015-09-14. Retrieved 2016-01-21. Schoonmaker, Trevor (2023). Spirit in the land: Exhibition, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, 2023. Durham, North Carolina: Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. ISBN 978-0-938989-45-5. Contreras-Vidal, Jose L.; Robleto, Dario; Cruz-Garza, Jesus G.; Azorín, José M.; Nam, Chang S., eds. (2019-12-09). Mobile Brain-Body Imaging and the Neuroscience of Art, Innovation and Creativity (1st ed. 2019 ed.). Cham (Switzerland): Springer. ISBN 978-3-030-24325-8. Dreams, as Faithful as Flames, presented at the 2016 International Conference on Mobile Brain-Body Imaging and The Neuroscience of Art, Innovation and Creativity in Cancun, Mexico.
