“Roman Verostko, a founding member of the Algorists, has practiced drawing and painting since graduating from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh in 1949. Reflecting on well over a half century of his work he sees continuity between drawing with his hand and drawing with his code, a technique he calls drawing with my “mind-hand”. Since the mid 1980’s all of his algorithmic works are works on paper drawn with pen plotters guided by his original coded procedures. With ink pens and occasionaly oriental brushes mounted in the plotter’s drawing arm, Roman’s “mind-hand” draws worlds of form he could only dream about in his pre-algorist period.”

Alice Wagstaff, PhD

My pursuit as an artist

My algorithmic work is rooted in the tradition of early 20th Century artists who sought to create an art of pure form. Influenced by the work and writings of artists like K. Malevich and P. Mondrian my work became a lifelong quest for pure visual form. Such work does not refer to “other” reality. Indeed the art form becomes a “new reality”. All of my current work, generated with coded procedures, continues the same quest for “pure form” that seduced the first generation purists and permeated my own pre-algorist work.

Transition to algorithmic form generators

In 1970, following a course in Fortran at the Control Data Institute in Minneapolis, I experienced the awesome “form-generating” power of algorithms coupled to computing power. Within a decade, with a personal computer in my own studio, I learned to write my own drawing instructions. These instructions, also known as “algorithms”, mimed methods I used as an artist in the 1960’s.

These procedures brought me to a new frontier of visual forms, forms I could never envision without the power of algorithmic recursion driven with computing power. These art forms do not describe or refer to “other” realities – rather they have a visual life of their own. Each one is a new reality.

Titles

Title sources are arbitrary. Some titles derive from evocative qualities I see in the finished form. Some works remain untitled and are given numbers much like musical compositions. Often works are titled to celebrate a text, commemorate a person, or mark an event. However the art forms themselves are always presented as visual realities to be experienced, similar to the way one might experience a musical form, a flower, or a tree.

Meanings

My art reflects coded procedures driving the technologies that shape our culture. Each drawing visualizes the code by which it was generated. With surprising grace and beauty, these visualizations invite us to ponder the power of form-generating code with its seemingly stark logic. By doing so, this art celebrates the mysterious nature of coded procedures that underlie the shape of our evolving selves.”

Roman Verostko, 2007

Born 1929 in Western Pennsylvania, USA. Roman Verostko lives and works in Minneapolis, USA.

EDUCATION
1970         Certificate of Completion, “Computer Concepts”, Control Data Institute, Minneapolis, USA
1969         Ekistics Seminar, Constantine Doxiadis, Athens, Greece
1962-63   Printmaking, Hayter’s Atelier 17, Paris, Frankreich
1961-62   Art History, New York University and Columbia University, USA
1961         MFA Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, USA
1953-59   Theologie St Vincent Seminary, Latrobe, PA, USA
1955         BA, Philosophy St Vincent College, Latrobe, PA, USA
1949         Diploma Art Institute of Pittsburgh, USA

SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2020
Dedication of the VEROSTKO CENTER for the ARTS, postponed (web presence of the featured exhibition)
2019
Roman Verostko and the Cloud of Unknowing, Minneapolis College of Art & Design Galleries, Minneapolis, MN.
2017
Roman Verostko: Seventy Years: From Idea in Mind to Idea in Code, Bridges in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
2015
Algorithmic Transformations: from art idea by hand to art idea with machine, The Saint Vincent Gallery, Latrobe, Pennsylvania, US
2010
ALGORITHMIC POETRY The Joy of Digital, DAM GALLERY Berlin, Germany
2007
Roman Verostko’s Algorithmic Drawings, Nina Bliese Gallery, New York
2006
Roman Verostko: Pearl Park Scriptures, DAM GALLERY Berlin, Germany
2001
Roman Verostko: Algorithmic Art, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA
1998
The Manchester Illuminated Universal Turing Machine, Metropolitain University, Manchester, UK
1995
Computer Generated Art, University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA
1993
Recent Epigenetic Works, Richard Halonen Fine Arts, Limited, Minneapolis, USA
1989
Pathways: 25 Years From Brush to Plotter, February, 1989, Honeywell Corporate Gallery, Minneapolis, USA
1988
Pathways: Robotic Paintings and Drawings, Benedicta Arts Center, College of Saint Benedict, Minnesota, USA
1985
Arcadia: Minnesota in Four Seasons, Programmed sound & image, MCAD, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
1983 
Magic Hand of Chance: four algorithmic sequences, John Scobee’s Computer Storefront, Minneapolis, USA
1973
Paintings, Drawings, Trajectory Gallery, London, Ontario, Canada
1972
Imaging the Unseen, Westlake Gallery, Minneapolis, USA
1968
Paintings, Drawings, Westlake Gallery, Minneapolis, USA
1967
Psalms in Sound and Image, Marymount Manhattan College, New York, USA
1965
Paintings & Drawings, Westmoreland County Museum of Art, Pennsylvania, USA
1966
Paintings by Roman Verostko, Benedicta Arts Center, College of St. Benedict, Minnesota, USA
1963
Paintings and Drawings, Maison Biermans-Lapôtre, Cité Universitaire, Paris, France

GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2019
Chance & Control, The Old Library, Northgate Street, Chester
2018
Chance & Control: Art in the age of computers, Victoria & Albert Museum, London
Flaten Art Museum, St. Olaf College, Northfield, USA
2017
Seeing Math, Flaten Art Museum, St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN
ALGORITHMIC SIGNS, Fondatione Bevilacqua La Masa, Galeria di Piazza San Marco, Venedig, Italy
2016
CODE + POETRY, DAM Gallery Berlin, Germany
2015
AESTHETICA, DAM Gallery Berlin, Germany
all-go-algorithm: Colette Bangert, Roman Verostko, Paul Hertz and Jean-Pierre Hébert, Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, Chicago, Illinois, US
2013
No Message Whatsoever: Frieder Nake & Friends, DAM GALLERY Berlin, Germany
The American Algorists: Linear Sublime, Flatiron Gallery & School of Visual Arts, New York
The American Algorists: Linear Sublime, The Suzanne H. Arnold Art Gallery, Lebanon Valley College, Annville, Pennsylvania
2012
“Stemperando 2012”,  Fifth Biennial Invitational, sponsored by Istituto Nazionale d’Arte Contemporanea (I.N.A.C.): Turin, National Central Library, Sept 10 – Oct 12, 2012; Cosenza National Library, Oct 19 2012 – Jan 20, 2013; Rome, National Central Library, Jan 24 – March 9, 2013
2011
“Geometries of the Sublime”, Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb, Croatia
2010 
ThinkLine – Concept, Computer, Code, Drawing, DAM GALLERY Cologne
2009
Digital Pioneers, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK
2008     
Imaging by Numbers: A Historical View of the Computer Print, The Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, USA
2007  
Feedback, Laboral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial, Gijon, Spain
Art Show, SIGGRAPH Art Gallery, San Diego Convention Center, USA
The Algorists, DAM GALLERY Berlin, Germany
2006
20th Century Computer Art: Beginnings & Developments, Toma Art University Museum, Tokyo, Japan
Computerkunst / Computer Art 2006 (11th International) at the Innovationszentrum Wiesenbusch, Gladbeck, Germany
Art Show, SIGGRAPH Art Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
MCAD Faculty at the Minnetonka Center for the Arts, USA
THE ALGORISTS: Four Visual Artists in the Land of Newton, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA
Form und Raum, Computerkunst Actuel, Museen der Stadt Lüdenscheid, Städtische Galerie, Lüdenscheid, Germany
2005 
Art Show, SIGGRAPH Art Gallery, Los Angeles Convention Center, USA
Art Show, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Algorithmic Revolution: The history of interactive art, ZKM: Medienmuseum at the Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie, Karlsruhe, Germany
2004
Computerkunst / Computer Art 2004 (10th International) at the Museum der Stadt Gladbeck, Germany
Contemporary Art & the Mathematica Instinct, University Art Museums, Marsh Art Gallery, University of Richmond, Virginia, USA
Art Show, SIGGRAPH 2004, Los Angeles, CA, USA
2003 
Contemporary Art & the Mathematica Instinct, Tweed Museum of Art, University of Minnesota, Duluth Campus, USA
STATE OF THE ART: Maps, Stories, Games and Algorithms from Minnesota, Carlton Art Gallery, Carlton College,  Northfield, Minnesota, USA
CODE: THE LANGUAGE OF OUR TIME, Ars Electronica, the Brucknerhaus, Linz, Austria
Art Show, SIGGRAPH 2003, San Diego, CA, USA
ARTWARE2, PUCP Cultural Center, S. Isidro, El Ojo Ajeno Galería,  Lima, Peru
2002 
Computerkunst / Computer Art 2002 (9th International) at the Gladbeck Innovationszentrum Wiesenbusch, Wiesenbusch, Germany
Math and Art, Selby Gallery, Ringling School of Art and Design, 2700 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, Florida, USA
2001
Retrospective of Digital Art, London Guildhall University, London, UK
The New York Digital Salon, Selected Works, The Corning Gallery at Steuben, New York, USA
Algorithmic Fine Art, Computing Commons Gallery, Arizona State University, USA
2000
Computerkunst / Computer Art 2000, Innovationszentrum Wiesenbusch, Gladbeck, Germany
Through the Looking Glass, Beachwood Center, Beachwood, Ohio, USA
Digitally Propelled Ideas, W. Keith and Janet Kellogg Art Gallery, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, USA
1999
Ars (Dis)Symmetyrica ’99, Ernst Museum, Budapest, Hungary
Southern Graphics Council Media Exhibition, Arizona State University Computing Commons Gallery, USA
Aesthetics + Artificial Life, Center for Digital Arts, University of California, USA
Computerkunst ’98, Gladbeck; Öko-Werkstatt in der Finne, Saaleck; Sammlungen der Stadt Dresden, Germany
1998
The Digital Artist: Art, Abstraction and Algorithms, The Williams Gallery, Princeton, NJ, USA
Gallery of the Future, Under Construction, Loughborough, UK
1997 
Fifth Annual New York Digital Salon, Visual Arts Museum, NY, USA
Art Show, SIGGRAPH ’97, Los Angeles, USA
Traveling SIGGRAPH ’97 Art Show, Fraunhofer-Institut, Germany; Living Arts Centre, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada; Sausalito Art Festival; The Art Institute of Houston, Texas, US; Saint Malo, France; Festival Quai des Bulles, Palais du Grand Large; Centre d’Animation de la Vallee “Salvador Allende”; George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, US
Digital perspectives, Ukranian Institute of Modern Art, Chicago, USA
A Bunch of Digital Art, The College of New Jersey, Trenton, NJ, USA
1996
Creativity & Cognition, LUTCHI, Loughborough, UK
The New York Digital Salon, New York, USA
1995 
University of Vermont, Francis Colburn Gallery, USA
SIGGRAPH ’95 Art Show, Los Angeles, USA
The New York Digital Salon, New York, USA
ARTEC ’95, International Biennial, Nagoya City Science Museum, Japan
Elastic Visions, Zoller Gallery, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, USA
1994 
Digital Visions, Williams Gallery, Princeton, New Jersey, USA
Computer Art: Visual Adventures Beyond the Edge, Evansville Museum of Arts & Science, Indiana, USA
International Exhibition of Digital Art, Academy of Fine Arts & Design, Bratislava, Slovakia
ISEA ’94, Fifth International Symposium on Electronic Art, Helsinki, Finland
Computer Art 94, Gladbeck, Karlsruhe, Germany
1993
The New York Digital Salon, Art Directors Club, New York, USA
Genetische Kunst – Künstliches Leben: Genetic Art – Artificial Life, Linz, Austria
Digital Salon des Independents, Cyberspace Gallery & Los Angeles New Art Foundation, West Hollywood, Los Angeles, USA
Computer Art, Yeiser Art Center, Paducah, KY, USA
TISEA Traveling Show, Museums at Adelaide and Brisbane, Australia
Electronic Media Show, Northern State University, Aberdeen, SD, USA
1992
Seoul International Computer Art Festival, South Korea
Third International Symposium on Electronic Art, Sydney, Australia
SIGGRAPH ’92 Art Show, Chicago, USA
Imagina: Images Beyond Imagination, Digital Art Gallery, Institut National de L’Audiovisuel, Monte Carlo, Monaco
1991
Dada-Data: Developing Medias Since 1970, Maryland Art Place & Fine Arts Gallery, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Interface, Art & Computer, Park Avenue Atrium, New York, USA
El Art: International Exhibition of Electronic Art, Retretti Art Center, Finland
Art & Algorithm – Mind & Machine, St. Sebastian Press Gallery, Minneapolis, USA
Fourth National Computer Art Invitational, originating at Eastern Washington University, USA
SIGGRAPH ’90 Art Show, Dallas; Computer Museum, Boston; Barcelona, Frankfurt et al
1989
The Technological Imagination: Machines in the Garden of Art, Intermedia Arts Minnesota and MCAD, USA
1988 
CRASH, Wright Museum of Art, Beloit, USA
Pathways: Robotic Paintings and Drawings, Benedicta Arts Center, College of Saint Benedict, St. Joseph, Minnesota, USA
1986 
Magic Hand of Chance, Centennial Version, MCAD Gallery, Minneapolis, USA

PROJECTS
2011
Three Story Drawing Machine and selected algorithmic drawings, screen facade, Zagrebs Museum für zeitgenössische Kunst, Zagreb, Croatia
Three Story Drawing Machine, sponsored by Northern Spark and presented at the Minneapolis College of Art & Design, USA
2007-08
Upsidedown Book & Mural, Fed Rogers Center, Latrobe, PA, USA
2004-06
Mural, Flowers of Learning, Hortus Conclusus Nazarenus, Spalding University, Academic Learning Center, USA
1996-97
Epigenesis: Growth of Form, Frei Science and Engineering Center, University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN, USA
1995-98
Illuminated Universal Turing Machines
1989-90
Limited Edition, George Boole’s “Derivation of the Laws . . .”, An edition of 125 with original algorithmic drawings by Roman Verostko, 1990, St Sebastian Press, Minneapolis, USA
1982-90
ARCADIA: Minnesota in Four Seasons, ein audio-visuelles Programm; zahlreiche Ausstellungen, u.a. MCAD, 1982; University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, 1983; Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts, Hangzhou, PRC, 1985
1966-67
Permanent reinforced concrete cast relief created as a load-bearing wall, Archabbots Gesprächszimmer im neuen Kloster, St Vincent Archabbey, Latrobe, PA, USA
1982- …
Decision Machine Suite as Homage to Norbert Wiener
1966-68
Brother, 8 ft by 8 ft, permanent reinforced concrete, a load-bearing wall imbedded in the wall of a six storey masonry building, Archabbot’s conference room, St Vincent Archabbey, Latrobe, PA, USA
1957
The Nine Choirs of Angels, Brazed copper, ca. 5 feet by 30 feet, St. Vincent Monastery Courtyard
1953
Angel Choirs, ca. 24 inches long, tempera on paper. The full scale mural was executed in fresco on a masonry wall, 1953

AWARDS
2018
SIGGRAPH Academy
2009
SIGGRAPH Distinguished Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement in Digital Art
1995
ARTEC ’95, Nagoya, Japan, Recommendatory Prize, International Biennale, Nagoya
1994
Golden Plotter, First Prize, 1994, Gladbeck, Germany
1993
Prix Ars Electronica, Honorary Mention; featured in Genetic Art – Artificial Life, 1993, Austria
1971+74
Outstanding Educators of America
1970
Bush Leadership Fellow. MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies

COLLECTIONS 
Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona
Ars Electronica, Linz, Austria
Block Museum, Northwestern University, Evanston. IL
College of St Benedict, St. Joseph, Minnesota
Flaten Art Museum, St. Olaf College, 1520 St Olaf Dr, Northfield, MN 55057
Frank Dietrich Collection
Duquesne University, Pittsburg, Pa.
Larry Greenburg Collection
Robert Hendel Collection
Janssen Pharmaceutica Corp
Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, 關渡通訊 ,Taipei
Miles Fiterman Collection
Minneapolis College of Art & Design
Minneapolis Institute of Art
Museum der Stadt Gladbeck, Gladbeck, Germany
Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
Fred Rogers Center, Latrobe, PA
Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava, Slovak Republic
Anne & Michael Spalter Digital Collection http://spalterdigital.com/
Howard Stein Collection
Spalding University, Louisville Kentucky.
St John’s Abbey, Collegeville, MN
St Vincent Archabbey, Latrobe, Pa.
St Vincent College, Latrobe, Pa
St John’s Abbey, Collegeville, MN
Tama Art University Museum, Tokyo
Carl & Marylin Thoma Foundation
Tweed Museum of Art, Duluth Minnesota
University of St. Thomas, St Paul Campus
University of St. Thomas, Minneapolis Campus
Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK (Patric Prince Collection)
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Yeiser Art Center, Paducah, Kentucky
ZKM Museum,Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie, Karlsruhe, Germany.

PUBLICATIONS
Form, Grace and Stark Logic: 30 Years of Algorithmic Drawing, LEONARDO, Vol. 43, No. 3, S. 230–233. 2010
WIM: The Upsidedown Book, Jewelweed Impressions, Minneapolis, 2008. Includes 65 black & white pen & ink drawings dating from the early 1970’s. First Edition published for the Fred Rogers Center, Latrobe, PA, for the dedication of a new building housing the archives of the creator of Mister Rogers Neighborhood. 2008
Epigenetic Art Revisited: Software as Genotype, in: Gerfried Stocker, Christine Schöpf und Ingrid Fischer Schreiber (Hg.), Code: the language of our time,  Ars Electronica 2003, Hatje Cantz Verlag, Osterfilden-Ruit 2003, S. 156-167
Art & Algorithm in China Fine Arts, Shanghai 1999, S. 14-15.
Die Preisträger des Goldenen Plotters / The Prizewinners of the Golden Plotter, Algorithmic Art and the Artist, in: Computerkunst 2000, Gladbeck 1986-1998, S. 21 ff.
Contemplating the Art Object in Cyberspace Culture, in: Computerkunst, Gladbeck 1998, S. 25-28.
Notes on algorithm and art, Computer Graphics Proceedings, in: SIGGRAPH 95, Los Angeles. 1995
Notes on Algorithmic Art, in: ISEA ’94 Catalogue. 1994
The Fifth International Symposium on Electronic Art, University of Art & Design, Helsinki, Finnland, S. 61. 1994
Introduction, Abstracts and Artists’ Statements, in: Fourth International Symposium on Electronic Art, Minneapolis, 1993.
Preface, Papers, in: Fourth International Symposium on Electronic Art, Minneapolis 1993.
Art & Algorithm: Classical Traditions Revisited: ‘ars sine scientia nihil’, in: Cultural Diversity in the Global Village, Australian Network for Art and Technology, Sidney 1992.
Computer Illustrations by Roman Verostko for a limited, fine art edition of The Derivation of the Laws, a chapter from The Laws of Thought by George Boole, St. Sebastian Press, 1990. Also in paperback, February 1991.
Epigenetic Painting: Software As Genotype, The New Art, in: Leonardo, Vol. 23 #1, January 1990.
Writing The Score For Painting: Software As Art in Proceedings: Tenth Annual Symposium On Small Computers In The Arts, Philadelphia, 1990.
Teaching In A Chinese Art academy, in: Arts Magazine, January, 1986 (MIA Monthly)
A Rising Star: a report on the Chinese art academy, Prepared for the Education Bureau of the Ministry of Culture, The People’s Republic of China, 1985..
A Futures Outlook on the Role of Artists and Designers: Art as if People Mattered, in: Futurics: Quarterly of Futures Research, V.4, No.3/4, 1980, Pergamon Press N.Y./Oxford, S. 26 ff.
Quelques remarques sur l’Art et le Religion le Sacré et le profane, in: Art D’Église No.170, First Quarter 1975, Brügge, Belgien.
Experience in Community – The New Art, Liturgical Arts, Vol 40, No 2, February 1972, S. 32 ff.
Abstract Art and the Church and other articles related to the “Ars Sacre” movement and Liturgical Art, in: The New Catholic Encyclopedia, McGraw Hill N.Y., 1968.
The Celebration of Man, in: Jubilee v.15 #10 April 1968.
The Fifteenth Station: The Celebration of the Marriage of Flesh and Spirit, Easter issue feature. 1968
Abstract Art and the Liturgy: Considerations from Gislebertus to Twentieth Century USA, in: Liturgical Arts, Vol 30, No 4, August 1962, S. 129 ff.

TEACHING
Professor Emeritus, Minneapolis College of Art & Design (since 1994)
2005             Advisory Board, International Symmetry Association (ISA)
1998-            International Advisor, Inter-Society for Electronic Art (ISEA)
1992-96       Board Member, Inter-Society for Electronic Art (ISEA)
1992-93       Director, Fourth International Symposium on Electronic Art (FISEA ’93), Minneapolis
1985             Visiting Professor, Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts, Hangzhou, PRC (renamed: China Art Academy)
1969-71       Humanities Consultant, The Tetra Corporation, Minneapolis
1969             Participant, Ekistics Institute, Athen, Griechenland
1988-91       Chairman, Liberal Arts
1979             Professor of Humanities
1975-78       Academic Dean
1968             Faculty, Minneapolis College of Art & Design, Minneapolis, Minnesota
1963-68       Faculty, St. Vincent College, Latrobe, Pennsylvania

CODE + POETRY, DAM GALLERY Berlin, 8. April – 4. Juni 2016
AESTHETICA, DAM GALLERY Berlin, 29. Mai – 1. August 2015
NO MESSAGE WHATSOEVER: FRIEDER NAKE & FRIENDS, DAM GALLERY Berlin, 16. November 2013 – 25. Januar 2014
THINK LINE 2, DAM GALLERY Berlin, 19. November 2011 – 21. Januar 2012
ALGORITHMIC POEMS: THE JOY OF DIGITAL, DAM GALLERY Berlin, 6. November 2010 – 22. Januar 2011
THE ALGORISTS, DAM GALLERY Berlin, 20. März – 14. Mai 2007
THE FIVE NOMINEES OF THE d.velop digital art award 2006 [ddaa], DAM GALLERY Berlin, 23. Juni – 6. September 2006
PEARL PARK SCRIPTURES 2004 – 2005, DAM GALLERY Berlin, 28. Mai – 13. Juli 2005