Artist of the Day: Stefan Gruber

Stefan Gruber is an artist, animator, musician and teacher. He founded and teaches in the animation department of the alternative high school, Nova, in Seattle.

Stefan’s work is personal, often experimental, and always worth experiencing for its original perspective.

One of his long-standing platforms for broadcasting his various work is the Fantasy Pleasure Complex, which may be best described as an online, multimedia zine. Ten issues have been published, and each is designed as an interactive Flash screen that is a unique work itself and allows access to other videos, comics and experimental pieces.

Fantasy Pleasure Complex was strange and exciting to experience at its debut in 2000, and still stands as a strong, independent presence that is like nothing else online in 2013. Find the vertical column of numbers in the lower left of FPC10 to navigate backwards to earlier editions.

A small sampling of his animation is available his YouTube account, such as “Six Mystic Flipbooks; Magic Gems of Animation”:

A short documentary from producer Patricia O’Brien and director Paige Barnes on Stefan is here is a good introduction to him and his work:

Another more recent short about Stefan from Ben Taylor and Brittany Alsot is here: