Robert Soffian

Robert Soffian is a painter who explores the supernatural and psychic events that guide us. He uses his experience as a theatre director (with over 30 of experience) to create mytho-poetic visual narratives. The procedure he likes to employ is profoundly based on materiality, detailed gesture, and focuses mostly on objects that are discarded and pre-used like our reactions to our biographies. He likes to be reminded of the masters of Modernism. And views the plenum of the picture frame as a stage where his figures reenact and project their stories. Ink, gouache, oil pigments are his favorites. He also plays with wood and aluminum. His work often combines things both physical and mentally: like impulse and rationality. All sides of the brain are embraced. In and out and up and down.

Robert Soffian (born 1947, Philadelphia, Pa) is a professor of theatre, director, painter and poet. He holds an MFA from the University of Virginia (1985) and BA in Cultural Studies/History from University of Wisconsin Madison (1969). For the almost 30 years he has been teaching at Shasta College in Redding, CA . (Retired 2014) Soffian has directed, designed lights, created mise en scen, and created digital projected scenery for well over 100 plays. As a producer he ran two Theatres…Century Hall and the Metropole Theatre (Milwaukee Wi). Soffian has curated dozens of exhibitions, ballet, opera, performance art, music events. He is credited with having discovered the Violent Femmes. During the golden age of culture in Amsterdam 1970’s he was a government supported artist. He was responsible for creating performance pieces, exhibitions of all kinds and weekly public plays poetry and theater events.