Education
Alaeff received a Master of Fine Arts in photography from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1996 and a Bachelor from Tulane University in New Orleans in 1993.
Alaeff received a Master of Fine Arts in photography from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1996 and a Bachelor from Tulane University in New Orleans in 1993.
He is best known for his work on the American animated children"s television program Dora the Explorer. Education Art Romeo Alaeff"s art work has been described as "blur the boundaries between icon and art, funny and serious, traditional and experimental, public and private". His artwork is very illustrative and his projects "explore the experience of inhabiting liminal zones, those architectural spaces, psychological and physical states in which contradictions collide." Alaeff often approaches his work with a sardonic or dark sense of humor such as in his project The Evolution of Despair which consists of a series of detailed drawings of animals expressing human thoughts and emotions.
Some of Alaeff"s work doesn"t employ humor directly but is still trained on social, psychological or philosophical observations, such as bias in perception in his War on the Brain series, choice in The Tyranny of Small Decisions, or in Crybaby, the act of crying as a manipulative device in human discourse as well as in filmmaking.
In this project, Alaeff asked different musicians such as Chi2 Strings and Moby to score the same 4 minute video of a young girl crying which was then played in a loop such that each viewer had a different experience of the piece such as "pathos, anxiety, pity and, in our attempt to give meaning to such seemingly unmediated emotion, an imagined internal narrative of heartbreak at the end of summer or an accident on the highway." As a whole Alaeff"s work is meant to be interactive, speaking directly or indirectly to the viewer or allowing one"s biases and projections to become part of the work. Bibliography His book, I"ll be dead by the time you read this: The Existential Life of Animals is a continuation of this body of work.
A sticker campaign was also launched from the original Evolution of Despair drawings and is featured in the book and exhibition tour, Stuck-up Piece of Crap: Stickers: From Punk Rock to Contemporary Artist Animation Romeo Alaeff has also worked as a writer, animation/animatic editor and film editor for several award winning children"s television shows.
His credits include: "Dora the Explorer" (Nickelodeon) "Go, Diego, Go!" (Nickelodeon) "Blue"s Room" (Nickelodeon) "Tarzan" (Disney Theatrical) "The Wonder Pets" (Nickelodeon) "Go Baby!" (Nickelodeon) "Piper O" Possum" (Nick Junior) "Word World" (Public Broadcasting Service) "Rubbadubbers" (Promos, (Nickelodeon)) Alaeff"s work has exhibited nationally and internationally and has appealed to a wide range of audiences for both artistic as well as cultural interest.
His work was exhibited in the 2001 Biennale in Lyon (France), Artists Space (New York City), the Kunsthal (Rotterdam), the Witte de With in conjunction w/ John Baldessari at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Madrid), Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA, Barcelona), The Dallas Museum of Art and Fondation Cartier pour l"art contemporain (Paris). His work has found considerable interest with non-art audiences as well and has been included in the curriculum for Emory University’s, The Displaced Person, Literature Beyond the Canon, The University of Texas at Austin’s American Studies: Religion and Society in American Literature, and Georgia State University’s Graduate Educational Psychology Course. In addition, he has been a guest artist, critic and teacher at the Rhode Island School of Design, Brown University, Pratt Institute, Parsons The New School for Design, The University of Georgia and Georgia State University.
