BIO
Seth Nehil makes original sound and theater work for concert, performance and installation. His work utilizes multi-speaker recorded sound, video screens and live performers, creating a dynamic interplay of cinema, sound effects, texts and songs. He has created music for choreographers and theater companies, including Hand2Mouth Theater, Linda Austin Dance and Linda K. Johnson Dance in Portland, OR and Liz Gerring Dance in NYC. Across 14 solo and collaborative albums over the last 13 years, Seth Nehil has crafted a strange and dramatic sound world, mixing metallic bells, gongs and crashes with vocal fragments, electronic buzzing and noisy waves. Seth Nehil currently teaches sound and video at The Pacific Northwest College of Art, and Washington State University Vancouver.
SETH NEHIL | C.V.
PERFORMANCE
2009 Bandage A Knife, with Linda Austin Dance
60 min., co-directed, Performance Works NW, Portland OR
2009 Flock & Tumble, presented by ESS, Heaven Gallery, Chicago IL
2008 Flock & Tumble, with 12 performers, 4-screen video and 4-channel sound
45 min., AudioCinema, Portland, OR
SOUND DESIGN
2010 Nigh, for Linda Austin, PICA T:BA Festival, Portland, OR
2008 Promenade, for Linda K. Johnson Dance, Portland, OR
2008 Montauk, for Liz Gerring Dance Co., Baryshnikov Arts Center, New York, NY
2007 Circus Me Around, for Linda Austin Dance, Portland, OR
2006 After-Hours, for Hand2Mouth Theatre, JAW Festival, Portland, OR
2005 division/dividing, for Rebecca Davis Dance, Danspace Project, NYC
2005 The Birds are Here.I Hear Them, for Rebecca Davis Dance, Chocolate Factory, NYC
2002 Jerusalem – Nat Turner’s Uprising, for Hand2Mouth Theatre Co., Portland, OR
2001 The Posture Queen (with Mnortham), for Hand2Mouth Theatre, Portland, OR
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
solo shows
2010 Grassland Alphabet, graphite drawings, InHouse Gallery, Portland, OR
2008 Knives / Swarm, sound installation, Diapason Sound Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2006 Circus Me (A Round), mixed media installation with Linda Austin,
Light & Sound Gallery at the Portland Art Center, Portland, OR
2005 Amusia Site, mixed media installation, MFA Thesis Exhibition, Bard College, NY
2004 Map, Itself, multi-speaker sound installation, Engine 27, NYC
2002 Basket – Black Walnut Drawings, works on paper,
SoundVision Gallery, Portland, OR
2000 Field Studies, works on paper, Rhizomat Gallery, Hammond, LA
1998 Untitled Collages, mixed media collages, 33 Degrees Records, Austin, TX
group shows
2010 Density 1- 5, ink on paper, New American Art Union, Portland OR
2010 Untitled (Nets), cut paper, Place Installation Space, Portland, OR
2009 Small Gem, ink on paper, Sq Ft, traveling exhibition curated by TJ Norris
2008 Furl, sound installation
Self Projections, curated by Gary Wiseman, Milepost 5, Portland, OR
2007 Birds Who... mixed media sculpture
Construct/Reconstruct, curated by Rhoda London, Cathedral Park Pl., St. Johns, OR
2003 Sunder, Unite (with Olivia Block), listening station
Sound of Place/Place of Sound, curated by Jennifer Gately, SunValley Art Center, ID
2000 Sunder, Unite (with Olivia Block), Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL
2000 Sonnamble (live radio installation with jgrzinich), hEXPO Festival,
Pina Gallery, Koper, Slovenia
1999 Basic Materials, works on paper, Beyond Music Festival,
Beyond Baroque Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
DISCOGRAPHY
solo
2010 Furl CD, Sonoris
2009 Knives LP, Senufo Editions
2008 Flock & Tumble CD, Sonoris
2007 Amnemonic Site CD, Alluvial Recordings
2003 Umbra CD, …edition
2003 Uva 3” CD, 20City
2000 From Cloud to Seed LP, Alluvial Recordings
1998 Tracing the Skins of Clouds CD, Kaon
collaborative
2008 Ecllipses (with Matthew Marble) CD, And/Oar
2007 Sillage (with Brendan Murray) CD, Sedimental
2006 Gyre (with jgrzinich) CD, cut records
2003 Sunder, Unite (with Olivia Block) CD, Sedimental
2003 Stria (with jgrzinich) CD, erewhon records
2003 Confluence (with jgrzinich) CD, Intransitive Recordings
1997 Alial Straa The Lumbering Intransitive Dream of… (with John Grzinich) cassette,
Orogenetics (re-issued as CDR in 2000 on Alluvial Recordings)
1996 Alial Straa Tunnels/Stairwell (with J. Grzinich, O. Block, M. Northam) cassette,
Orogenetics (re-issued as CDR in 2000 on Alluvial Recordings)
compilation tracks
2009 “Twine” Framework 250 2xCDr, Framework
2006 “Knotknit” The Walls are Whispering CD, EE Tapes
2003 “Betula” Infernal Proteus 4xCD + book, Ajna
2003 “Transference” on Chaleur LP, GMBH
2003 “Le Piemont” (with Toy Bizarre) Sound of Nature/Nature of Sound CD, Kaon
PUBLICATIONS
writing
2010 – present, Intransitive online music magazine, contributor
2010 “On Rewind”, Drain Magazine (http://www.drainmag.com/)
2010 “Children’s Games (after Breugel)”, Shifter Magazine (http://shifter-magazine.com/)
2007- present, PICA Time Based Arts Festival blogger,
reviews of performance, time-based and visual works
editing
2003 – 08 FO A RM Magazine, co-editor and designer of arts and research publication
° Galiola - works for radio CD by Arsenije Jovanovic, 80 min., w/ 12pp booklet, 2008
° special issue one (Tools of Mind, edited by Matthew Marble), 52 pages, 2007
° No. 5 (autonomy), 156 pp. + CD, 2006
° No. 4 (topography), 144 pp. +CD, 2005
° No. 3 (duals & doubles), 112 pp., 2004
° No. 2 (dis/embodiment), 80 pp., 2004
° No. 1 (utility), 52 pp., 2003
1996 – 2000 N D Magazine, contributing editor, international magazine of experimental
music, performance and art, numbers 19 - 21
SELECTED CONCERTS
2007 Activating the Medium Festival, San Francisco Art Institute, S.F., CA (23Five)
2006 Two Sound-Events, PNCA, Portland, OR (with student participants)
2005 Point and Periphery (with jgrzinich & hitoshi kojo)
Finland: Turku, Tampere, Helsinki
2005 at Correnti Sonore Festival (with jgrzinich), Tarcento, Italy
2005 Amusia Rite, Fringes Music, Milan, Italy
2005 Sillage (with Brendan Murray), Nisus, Galería Galou, Brooklyn, NY
2005 Amusia Rite, at BPM, Galería Galou, Brooklyn, NY
2005 Amusia Rite, 3rd annual ffmup Festival, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
2005 at MIT C.A.V.S. (solo & with Olivia Block, Jonthan Chen, Bhob Rainey), Boston MA
2004 For 12 players w/ objects and cd players around a perimeter, Bard College, NY
2004 For 12 players w/ objects around a perimeter, Intransitive Music Festival, Boston, MA
2004 with Brendan Murray, Intransitive Music Festival, Boston, MA
2003 Convergence concert (with jgrzinich), 322 Union Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2003 at subTonic (with jgrzinich), New York, NY
2002 at DeadTech (solo and with Olivia Block), Chicago, IL
1999 From Cloud to Seed concert, Beyond Music Festival, Beyond Baroque, L.A., CA
1997 Alial Straa at the Candy Factory, Austin, TX
1996 Alial Straa at Mexic-Arte Gallery, Austin, TX
1996 Alial Straa at X/XX Festival, the Electric Lounge, Austin, TX
CURATING
2007 Usufruct, Linfield Gallery, McMinnville OR
2007 Light & Sound Gallery at the Portland Art Center, Portland, OR, 2007 season
(curatorial committee member)
2006 FO A RM Festival of Sound & Video, Portland Art Center, Portland, OR
1999 Intersect 1999 Festival, The Off-Center, Austin, TX
1997 An Orogeny of Circumstance Festival, the Off-Center, Austin, TX
PROFESSIONAL
2008 – present, Instructor, Fine Arts Dept., Washington State University, Vancouver, WA
Curriculum developed: Time-based Arts, Sound and Moving Image
2007 – present, Instructor, Pacific Northwest College of Art, Portland, OR
Curriculum developed: Beginning and Intermediate Sound
2008 Visiting artist, School of the Art Institute of Chicago MFA Sound Program
2006 Workshop/lecture on spatialized sound, PNCA, Portland, OR, 2006
2005 Sound Workshop (“Recording and composing with concrete sounds”), ages 14 - 15
(with John Grzinich), Tartu Children’s Art School, Estonia
2003-05 Arts Enrichment Classes, ages 2 - 5, Park West Montessori, New York, NY
1999-2002 Weekly art workshops, ages 6 - 10, Childpeace Montessori, Portland, OR
1998-99 Art activity planning, ages 5 - 12, Ainsworth Aftercare Program, Portland, OR
EDUCATION
Master of Fine Arts, concentration in Music/Sound. Bard College, NY. 2005
Bachelor of Fine Arts, Painting/Transmedia. University of Texas at Austin. 1998