ARTISTIC COLLABORATIONS
VISUAL ARTIST - RANDY POLUMBO
Randy Polumbo is a visual artist whose practice intervenes in perceptual, ecological, and propagational systems. Informed by his wide-ranging study of horticulture, engineering, and regenerative design, his projects use recycled, repurposed, as well as living materials to enact alchemical, spatial, and social transformation. Polumbo’s projects center the formal and elemental aspects of a site such as light, water, and earth to draw our attention to geological time—that is, processes beyond the scale of human perception. The works reveal their own chronology, framing the simultaneity of growth, endurance, and impending collapse. Sometimes this is to frame the enormity of the natural world, such as caves and grottos which are not static forms but phenomena constantly advancing. Other times this is to repair travesties of industry and instruments of destruction, recuperating sites of petroleum spills or monocultural agriculture by creating moments of surprise interaction, collective curiosity, or beauty.
He is excited to collaborate with TRANScend in these same spirits, to conjure curiosity and beauty from troubling material, and with a homespun yet highly resolved synergistic spin.
Randy Polumbo is an installation-based artist who lives and works between Joshua Tree, California and New York City. His artwork has been shown nationally and internationally across metropoles and natural landscapes such as deserts, ruins, and caves.
Major exhibitions include Museum of Old and New Art (Hobart, Tasmania), Ohr-O’Keefe Museum (Biloxi, MS), Prospect 3 (New Orleans, LA), Kasmin Gallery (Miami/NYC), Bass Museum (Miami, FL), Bombay Beach Biennale (CA), Norton Museum (Palm Beach, FL), and The Bunker Artspace (West Palm Beach, FL). Press and interviews include New York Times, Paper Magazine, The Cut, Vice, The Art Newspaper, Artdaily, the Golden Handcuffs Review, and New York Magazine. Residencies include Yaddo (Saratoga Springs, NY) and Park Stewardship Through the Arts (Joshua Tree, CA).
Polumbo’s work is in the private collections of Lorinda Ash, Beth DeWoody, Tim & Stephanie Ingrassia, Ann Magnuson, Rick Moody, John & Amy Phelan, Kenny Scharf, Jon Stryker & Slobodan Randjelovic, Uma Thurman, David Walsh & Kirsha Kaechele; as well as the public collections of the Museum of Old & New Art (Hobart, Tasmania), Crocker Museum of Art (Sacramento, CA), and The Museum of Sex (NYC).
He is a graduate of The Cooper Union School of Art, as well as a LEED accredited master builder and serves on the Board of Directors of New York Live Arts.
ARTIST STATEMENT
COMPOSER IN RESIDENCE - 2022: DYLAN TRẤN
Dylan Trần (he/they) (1994—) is a multi-media artist based out of New Orleans, LA. Praised for “an entirely refreshing and distinct compositional voice” (CAI), Dylan views music as a form of world-building, poignantly evoking nuanced atmospheres within an intimately expressive writing style. Unrestrained by genre, Dylan’s work explores many themes: mental health, generational trauma, inner child work, diasporas, identity, class, gender, family dynamics, redefining home, fostering joy, and more. Outside of concert music, Dylan is passionate about building community, film scoring, eating, languages, film and TV, DEI, education, travel, skateboarding, frisbee, photography, videography, new experiences, nature, and spending time with family and friends. He was a finalist in the 2023 NATS Art Song Competition and is a ‘22-’23 Bouman Composer Fellow with Kinds of Kings and the Contemporary Youth Orchestra (Cleveland, OH).
Highlights from Dylan’s past year include premieres in Los Angeles (Salastina), Orange County (CAI), New York City (TRANScend), Brooklyn (Sputter Box), New Jersey (Palisades Virtuosi), and New Orleans (Opus Vocal Ensemble, LA-ACDA), as well as performances and recordings in Moscow (Moscow Metropolitan Orchestra), Cincinnati (CCM), Cambridge (Longy School of Music), and Syracuse (Setnor School of Music). Dylan composed and produced the score for the 2022 documentary, Chú đi biển (Uncle, at Sea)— directed by Marion Hill and produced in partnership with TAAF and Hulu. Dylan is partnering with Marion again in 2023 to score a documentary for Oxford American.
Dylan is also a photographer and video artist with a portfolio spanning the U.S., as well as an educator, having been a guest at the Elis Marsalis Center for Music, St. Ursuline Academy, Lời Ru Những Dòng Sông, the Louis S. McGehee School, high schools around Cleveland in partnership with the Contemporary Youth Orchestra, and more. Dylan is also a budding writer, creating the occasional libretto, authoring the occasional screenplay, and penning articles for journals and newsletters here and there, musical and otherwise.
Follow Dylan on Instagram at @dylantranmusic.