Roman De Salvo

Roman de Salvo (born 1965) is a contemporary American conceptual artist who creates sculpture and installation art.

Roman de Salvo was born in San Francisco, California, in 1965 and grew up in Reno, Nevada.

Rain Bow, one of his first interactive public works, was displayed in the San Diego Natural History Museum in 1994.

When the drinking fountain handle was turned, the blinds opened to reveal an image of the park outside the museum with a rainbow overhead.

In another work from the same year entitled Zurn Fountain, the flushing of a public toilet activated the eruption of a small geyser from a drain in the restroom floor.

[1] In the 1998 work Garden Guardians, video game joysticks were mounted on the outdoor patios of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

In the 2000 Whitney Biennial, de Salvo exhibited Face Time, a project that invited the museum's restaurant patrons to eat their meals from the artist's specially designed plates that resembled TV dinners, cosmetic cases and laptop computers.

Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, Hugh Davies describes the appeal of de Salvo’s work: “What always amazes me is [Roman’s] inventiveness.

That’s what keeps Roman’s art so fresh.” [4] In recent years, de Salvo has turned to more large-scale public works.

His 2003 work Crab Carillon was installed on a bridge spanning California State Route 94 in San Diego.

[5] In 2006, de Salvo completed a site-specific work for the Caltrans District 11 Headquarters in San Diego.

2009 Split, Splice, Splay, Display, Quint Contemporary Art, La Jolla, California.

2008 Group Show, Athenaeum Music & Arts Library, La Jolla, California.

2005 Main Street Sculpture Project, the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut.

2004 Recent Work with Electrical Conduit, Quint Contemporary Art, La Jolla, California.

1993 Tour of Sculptures in Pacific Beach, Visual Arts Facility Gallery, University of California, San Diego.

1999 Drip, Blow, Burn: Forces of Nature in Contemporary Art, The Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, New York.

1996 Inside: the Work of St. Clair Cemin, Joel Otterson and Others, California Center for the Arts Museum, Escondido.