For nearly three decades, New York City-born multidisciplinary artist and performer Rob Roth has been a subversive force in the city’s culture, drawing from the worlds of theater, art, music, film and dance. First educated as a painter, Roth’s expansive medium focus is the result of valuable training in technology while working in the commercial creative sector. Roth’s work has been showcased at such venues as the New Museum for Contemporary Art, Performance Space122, Abrons Art Center, Here Arts, and Deitch Projects as well as the Whitney Museum of American Art, among others.
Having collaborated with a vast range of artists and performers over his career, Roth views the integration of multiple disciplines as fundamental to his creative drive and vision. Regarding theatre as ritual he uses a cinematic vocabulary along with live performance, video and installation to create singular deconstructed narratives. His influences include renaissance painting, classic Hollywood films, and queer history. A visionary within the worlds of art and theater, and a pioneering media artist worldwide, Roth is one of a few fine artists who has the ability to translate his distinctive aesthetic and masterful technical skills into viable commercial projects. Over the years, Roth has worked as a creative consultant for The Mill (NY, London, LA), leading projects with clients including Coach, Lady Gaga, Rihanna for Samsung, AT&T, Showtime, HBO and David Bowie.
Described as a “nouveau Cocteau” by Michael Musto, Roth graduated from the Pratt Institute in the early 90s and eventually became a key figure in the underground nightlife scene, most notably with the legendary Tuesday night Jackie 60. In 1995 he co-founded Click + Drag, a weekly Saturday night party at the infamous nightclub MOTHER in 1995. Preceding today’s digital landscape by decades, the “cyberfetish” event integrated early technology, video, fashion and nightlife culture with a vibrant otherworldly sensibility. Click + Drag ran for four years, attracting a fanatical following, and was revived at other venues throughout the 2000s.
Roth has served as creative collaborator for Debbie Harry and her band Blondie since 1999, directing various projects including her recent New York Times bestselling memoir, Face It. His short film Blondie: Vivir En La Habana, which documented Blondie’s 2019 trip to Cuba, premiered at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival. The film included live performance and behind-the-scenes life in Havana shot on 16mm and Super 8. After receiving much acclaim, the film premiered internationally at RIFF in Iceland, SeeYouSound in Italy and Sheffield DocFest in U.K. Roth also directed the music video for “Doom or Destiny,” featuring Joan Jett. Described by Debbie Harry as “the most openly political video Blondie has ever done,” it appeared on several “Best of 2017” lists.
Roth’s bold yet enigmatic theater piece, Soundstage, premiered at New York’s HERE Arts Center in 2018. Featuring actor Rebecca Hall in a devastating performance, the piece received high praise ranging from “a lusciously designed 60-minute queer exorcism that meditates on memory, imitation and decay” to an “immersive fever dream of a production” to the New York Times declaring that Soundstage “deftly evokes the fleeting transition from wakefulness to dreaming.”
“Rob is that rare magical artist that goes to the places we rarely visit in waking life.”
– Rebecca Hall
“Rob is a true artist/ auteur/ shaman of the new century.”
– Basil Twist
“Sex fiend, drunkard, visionary”
– Debbie Harry
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Photo by Nick Wiesner
