sTeVe

sTeVe was formed in 1960 amongst the plasticized realm of Southern California. At the confluence of three great illusions – Disneyland (which he could see from his childhood home), Television, and the infant freeway system, as such, sTeVe is an imaginary and vast organization of one individual: sTeVe “Steven” Knauff who runs a live action Show which does not exist. Called The sTeVe Show, based in an imaginary place obscured by equally ephemeral clouds of mystic diffusion, sometimes called “Saticoy” – in California. As such, sTeVe is forever “DIRECT FROM SATICOY CALIFORNIA” as a preprogrammed entity designed for the vast creative cluster of equally diffuse individuals of Black Rock City Nevada (AKA Burning Man), a city which magically appears out of the dust as a temporary creation of itself and even more quickly disappears without a trace, as if it never existed.

Television starts as a spark in a box and zooms into one’s eyes and out the back of the brain like the Cathode Ray Tubes of old….sending out a series of electrons beaming directly through the brain to infinity and beyond. As sTeVe says “Television IS reality, because reality was made for television…”.

sTeVe’s entire reality is based on an event at the age of nine, when, like most Southern California children of his time they were bussed to the La Brea Tar Pits to see the dinosaurs. Walking thru the exhibits of Saber Tooth Tigers, Mastodons and the like, the children were led to a creation studio in the basement of the LA County Museum of Art next door. The 50-60 youngsters were seated around a massive table with bits of clay as they were expected to make representations of what they had just seen. Instead the young sTeVe made a small 3” clay TV. His friends egging him on, he led them singing the current MacDonald’s TV commercial while studiously making a clay “…hamburger with two all beef patties and a sesame seed bun”.

When the teacher discovered this, she immediately insisted he make a proper dinosaur like everyone else. And so with an air of imperious annoyance sTeVe wiped up an instant Saber Tooth Tiger in a few seconds – with talk show host efficiency he said “There- ya satisfied?” and went back to using a pencil to roll out thin sheets of lettuce. He was only allowed to keep the Dino as the teacher insisted the hamburger and TV set were too thick to fire in the kiln. A lie he did learn about until High School… but the spirit of that first clay TV lives on!

sTeVe “Steven” Knauff has a BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute (1988) and an MFA from UCLA in 1993. sTeVe also studied under various artists who have virtually no influence on his current art save one – the Great Ken Nack of Santa Barbara Community College who in 1979 – sent sTeVe on the path he is still on to this very day.

Artworks