Biography

Born in Verwood, Dorsetshire England 19 September 1943. Served in the Royal Air Force 1960-1973. Lives and works in Maastricht since 1973. Studied at the Jan van Eyck Academy for Fine Art 1973-1978. [Experimental Art Department].

Summers is a sound, visual, conceptual artist, performance poet, dramatist, mail and book artist, publisher, archivist, and lecturer on intermedia. Has worked as a Mail-Artist from 1973 to the present day.
The results of Summers’ multiple, art-related activities have often appeared as part of his concept of VEC (Visual, Experimental, Concrete), which he originated in 1973.

In 1999 CNN International featured Summers in its Art Club show as a representative of avant-garde art in Holland. In addition, over the last 20 years, Summers has performed his work at various festivals in Europe, including the Reykjavik Art Festival (1991), the Polypoetry Festival of Sound Poetry (Bologna, 1993), and the International Sound Poetry Festival (Bologna, 1997), among others.

Summers is among the “second wave” of intermedia artists. The first wave including Dick Higgins. Vito Acconci, John Cage, Allan Kaprow, and Joseph Beuys. He differs from Higgins and members of the first generation, however, in that he is less theoretical and more experiential in his approach to his art.

Links

Mail Artists Index: http://mailartists.wordpress.com/2010/04/19/rod-summers/