Fein seized upon despicable amateur images, which unexpectedly had acquired public notoriety and probative value, and re-presented them in enhanced, painterly terms. His invocation of old-master painting, far from summoning up Christian martyrdom as do the Abu Ghraib canvases of Fernando Botero, delivers us to the dark threshold of inhumanity conjured by Goya.
Marcia E. Vetrocq , Art in America Magazine.
South
African born in Johannesburg, 1964. Currently resides in San Francisco,
California
CURRENT/UPCOMING
EXHIBITIONS
2010 Full
Disclosure, January - February, 2010, Toomey Tourell, San
Francisco, California (Solo)
Banned and Recovered,
January 2010 – January 2013, California Exhibition Resources Alliance,
USA (Group exhibition)
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2008 Clinton
Fein at Southern Oregon University, 04/17/08 – 05/31/08, Thorndike
Gallery, Southern Oregon University, Ashland, Oregon
2007 Torture, 01/04/07 – 01/30/07,
Toomey Tourell, San Francisco, California
2005 Uncovered,
02/12/05 – 03/13/05, Upfront Gallery, Ventura, California
2004 Numb
& Number, 10/07/04 - 11/13/04, Toomey Tourell, San
Francisco, California
WARNING!, 08/31/04 – 10/02/04,
Axis Gallery, New York, New York
2003 Criminal
Vol. 2, 10/18/03 – 12/31/03, African American Library and Museum at
Oakland, Oakland, California
SELECT GROUP
EXHIBITIONS
2009 The
Other Mainstream II, 09/27/08 – 01/04/09, Selections from the
Collection of Mikke and Stanley Weithorn, The Arizona State University Art
Museum, Phoenix, Arizona
2008 Banned
and Recovered, curated-Hanna
Regev, 09/05/08
– 12/30/08, African American Library and Museum at Oakland, Oakland,
California
NOISE, 10/15/08 – 11/04/08, Anton Gallery,
Monterey, California
Face It - Torture in the 21st Century, 10/19/08 and 10/20/08,
Highways, Santa Monica, California
Peace Billboards: Artists Collaborate with
the United Nations,
05/26/08 – 06/22/08, San Francisco, California
Bridge Berlin, International Art Fair, 10/30/08 – 11/02/08, w/ Toomey
Tourell, Berlin, Germany
2007 Beijing International Art Exposition, Torture, 09/20/07 –
09/23/07, w Michael Petronko Gallery, Beijing China
Bridge London, Special
Project Invitation, Torture, 10/11/07 - 10/14/07, London, United Kingdom
Flow Art Fair, Miami,
12/05/07 – 12/09/07, w/ Toomey Tourell Gallery, Miami, Florida
Bridge Chicago, 04/26/07
- 04/30/07, w/ Toomey Tourell Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
2006 Visual
Politics: The Art of Engagement, curated-Peter Selz, 04/19/06 – 07/30/06,
American University Museum, Katzen Arts Center, Washington, DC
2005 Joto, 06/22/05 – 07/22/05, Amaru Gallery,
San Francisco, California
Imprints, 02/08/05 – 04/02/05,
Axis Gallery, New York, New York
San Francisco International Art Expo, 01/05/ - 01/17/05,
w/ Toomey Tourell, Fort Mason, San Francisco, California
2004 Fear
Will Not Silence Us!!!! Anti-Militarist Art Show! 06/26/04, Not in
Our Name, French Fry Factory, Oakland, California
Scope Los Angeles,
05/17/04 – 05/21/04, w Toomey Tourell, Los Angeles, California
Scope New York, 03/12/04 – 03/15/04,
w Toomey Tourell, New York, New York
Academy of Friends and Visual Aid Art Auction, 02/12/04, w/ Toomey
Tourell, San Francisco, California
2003 BIG, 11/15/03 – 12/01/03,
w/ Toomey Tourell, San Francisco,
California
Scope Miami, 12/04/03 – 12/07/03,
w/ Toomey Tourell, Miami, Florida
Big Deal X, Visual Aid 10th
Annual Art Sale/Fundraiser, 111/15/03, w/ Toomey Tourell, San Francisco,
California
2002 ICON 2002, 10/04/02, Yerba Buena
Center for the Arts, San Francisco, California
Big Deal, Visual Aid 9th
Annual Art Sale/Fundraiser, 111/15/03, w/ Toomey Tourell, San Francisco,
California
PUBLICATIONS
2006 Zoe Trodd, American Protest Literature, Harvard University Press, 2006
Peter Selz, Art of Engagement: Visual Politics in California and Beyond, University
of California Press, 2006
SELECT PRESS/REVIEWS
2008 Marcia E. Vetrocq, “Rules of Engagement” Art
in America, June/July, 2008
Maureen Davidson, “A Call to
Arms” Metro Santa Cruz Weekly, October 8, 2008
Heather Tirado Gilligan, “Billboards bring peace message to city
streets” Bay Area Reporter, May 29, 2008
Heather Ishimaru, “San Francisco billboard display
peace messages” (video) ABC
News, May 27, 2008
Ariel Soto, “Wheatpaste for peace: SF Peace
Billboards Project launches” San Francisco Bay Guardian, May 26,
2008
Michael Leaverton, “Buy Into It” SF
Weekly, May 20, 2008
Janine Kahn, “Night + Day: Calendar Picks” SF
Weekly, May 26, 2008
2007 Peter Selz, “Clinton Fein at Toomey
Tourell” Art in America, December, 2007
Peter
Beaumont ,Iraq inspires surge of protest art, The Observer, September
9, 2007
Clinton Fein: Torture, ArtNet.com, January, 2007
Steven Winn, “WWII fades into distant past,
and with it, our sense of patriotism” San Francisco Chronicle, September
22, 2007
Janine Zeitlin, “Art Basel - Bridge Art Fair
Opening” Miami New Times, December 7, 2007
Helen Stoilas and James Knox, Bridge, The
Art Newspaper, October 12, 2007
Kenneth Baker, “Botero's distinctive style
evokes moral energy”San Francisco Chronicle, January 29, 2007
Kenneth Baker, “The Horror of
Torture, Reinterpreted through Art” San Francisco Chronicle
January 20, 2007
Michael Leaverton, “Precision Strike” SF
Weekly, January 17, 2007
Reyhan Harmanci, “The Bigger Picture:
'Torture': Photographer restages infamous images from Abu Ghraib” San
Francisco Chronicle, January 11, 2007
Andrew Sullivan, “Looking at Torture”
Time Magazine, January 2, 2007
2006 Capital Roundup, artnet Magazine, May 22,
2006
2005 Art Beat, SF Weekly, June 29, 2005
Holland Cotter, “'Imprints: Works on Paper'” The
New York Times, March 25, 2005
Paul Benevidez, “Clinton Fein Comes To Town” The
Ojai and Ventura VOICE, February 11, 2005
Josef Woodard, “Provocation via the Political”
The
Los Angeles Times, March 3, 2005
Esther Easly, “Clinton Fein at Upfront Gallery” Coagula
Art Journal, March, 2005
Molly Freedenberg, “Everything's Fein” Ventura
County Reporter, February 12, 2005
Clark Buckner, “Numb and Number: Clinton Fein
at Toomey Tourell Gallery” Artweek, February, 2005
Molouk Y. Ba-Isa, “Corporate Policy Leads to
Political Censorship” Arab News, January 11, 2005
2004 Kenneth
Baker, “2 of Clinton Fein's political works run afoul of his printer's policies”
San
Francisco Chronicle, October 12, 2004.
Ken Johnson, “Clinton Fein, ‘Warning’ at Axis”
The
New York Times, September 17, 2004
Kresta Tyler Johnson, “Artist and advocate
Clinton Fein has his controversial images destroyed prior to exhibition” Artthrob,
October, 2004
Kenneth Baker, “His art is not subtle. It can be hard to
take. But Clinton Fein is not afraid to make a statement” San Francisco Chronicle, November
2, 2004
Jack Fischer, “Using the Canvas to Canvass” The
San Jose Mercury News, October 31, 2004
Steve Winn, “As Nov. 2 nears, artists get in
their last licks, sending up Bush and company on center stage” San
Francisco Chronicle, October 20, 2004
Louise Roug, “Political artist loses printer
over images”The Los Angeles Times, October 16, 2004
“The Clinton Cabinet “ Surface Magazine.
October 2004
Jack Fischer, “Print shop refuses to release
political images” The San Jose Mercury News, October 6, 2004
Paul Festa, “Annoy.com Webmaster says war art
censored” C|NET, October 6, 2004
2002 Kenneth Baker, “Contemporary art gets no more
incendiary” San Francisco Chronicle, January, 26, 2002
Tanya Pampalone, SF’s
Annoy.com true to its name” San Francisco Examiner, February2,
2002
2001 David W.
Quinto, Law of Internet Disputes, Aspen Publishers Online, Published
2001
2000 Jon Rhine
& Todd Stein, Ungagged CEO of Annoy.com sinks teeth into critics, San
Francisco Business Times, September 15, 2000
1999 Joan Biskupic, “Court
Upholds Ban on Obscene E-Mai” Washington
Post, April 20, 1999
Pamela Mendels, “Court
Rejects Challenge to Internet Speech Law” The New York Times, April 19, 1999
Malcolm Maclachlan, “Annoy.com Downplays
Supreme Court Defeat” TechWeb, April 19, 1999
William Bennett Turner, “A Supreme Indecency”
Law.com, April 28, 1999
“Security, Speech Rights Clash Online” Policy.com,
April 20, 1999
Matt Beer, “Obscene e-mail not protected free
speech” San Francisco Examiner, April 19, 1999
“U.S. Supreme Court Upholds Computer Indecency
Law” Los
Angeles Times, April 19, 1999
1998 Pamela
Mendels, “Annoy.com Can Be Indecent, but not Obscene” The New York Times,
September 25, 1998
Elinor Mills, U.S. court protects 'annoying'
online speech, CNN, September 29, 1998
Michelle Goldberg, “The Importance of Being
Annoying” Metropolitan Magazine, January 1988
David Hudson, Federal court rules that
annoy.com may continue to annoy, First Amendment Center, September
25, 1998
Apollomedia Corp. v. Reno, Netlitigation,
1998
Courtney Macavinta, Annoy.com free to bother
Netizens, C|Net, September 24, 1998
1997 Jonathan
Gregg, “Dispatches” Time, October 20, 1997
Dan Goodin, “Annoy.com CDA challenge heard” CNET
News, October 20, 1997
Ray Delgado, Web site owner sues to limit 'decency'
law, San
Francisco Chronicle, October 21, 1997
“Suit Challenges Ban on 'Annoying' Language” The
New York Times, October 22, 1997
Pamela Mendels, Asserting a Constitutional
Right to Annoy, The New York Times, January 31, 1997
1995 Stewart Wolpin, “Evolutionary” Rolling
Stone Magazine, April 1995
Jon Katz, “Conduct Unbecoming”
Wired Magazine, March 1995
Carol Ness, CD-ROM with gay sailors released,
San
Francisco Chronicle, March 8, 1995
“Navy OKs Illustration of Gay Midshipman” Albany
Times Union, March 9, 1995
John Gilles, “Conduct Unbecoming” Marin
Independent Journal, March 9, 1995
LECTURES/PANELS/WORKSHOPS
Symposium (developed and
presented)
Freedom of Expression During Times of War
University of California at Berkeley Extension
Panel: Interface between art and vandalism
University of San Francisco
Lecture: Presenting challenging material
Department of Museum Studies, John F. Kennedy
University
Lecture: Open Access and Small Business
San Francisco Small Business Network
Lecture: The New Role of Electronic Media
School of Journalism, University of Oregon
AWARDS
2001 Nominee, PEN/Newman's Own First Amendment
Award in 2001
1998 Nominee, Webby Award in the
category Politics+Law, Annoy.com
1995 Winner, Critics
Choice Award, USA Today and San Francisco Review of Books, Conduct Unbecoming
CD-ROM
GROUPS/ASSOCIATIONS:
2001 – Present First Amendment Project - President of the Board
EDUCATION
1992 – 1993 University of California, Los Angeles
Screenwriting, Acting, Directing
1983 – 1987 University of the Witwatersrand, Bachelor of Arts, Industrial Psychology