| Mostly Credited As: | John Fleck |
| Date Of Birth: | May 07, 1951 |
| Country Of Birth: |  USA |
Fleck's work received national attention in 1990, when, along with three other performance artists, he became part of what was known as the “NEA 4.” Labeled by some political pundits as too dirty to be funded, the NEA four spearheaded a national campaign against artistic repression and won their Supreme Court case against the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1998, the Supreme Court, with the backing of the Clinton Administration (go figure that one), overturned part of the case and determined that ‘standards of decency’ was constitutional. Sadly, soon after, the NEA eliminated all funding for ‘new genre’ categories.
Fleck has won numerous grants and awards, among them 2 NEA’s, a Getty Fellowship, a Franklin Furnace & Jerome Foundation Fellowship, a Rockefeller/NEA- Interarts grant and LA Cultural Affairs funding. He has won 3 LA Critics Circle Awards, 8 DramaLogue, 6 LA Weekly and 2 Backstage West awards, all for outstanding performance.
Fleck’s latest piece, JOHNNY’S GOT A GUN premieres this summer at the Evidence Room, LA and will move to NY in the fall. His past body of solo work includes: Nothin’ Beats Pussy, Mud in your Eye, Dirt, me, A Snowball’s Chance in Hell, Blessed are all the Little Fishes, PsychoOpera and I Got the He-be-she-be’s. A sampling of past performance venues includes; the ICA (London), ICA (Boston), The Public Theater, The Guggenheim Museum, PS-122, LaMama Theater, Dixon Place & Joe’s Pub (NYC), The Getty Museum, Cal Plaza, MOCA & The Evidence Room (LA).
Fleck often works as a performer in world-renowned video artist, Bill Viola’s pieces. He was recently featured in Mr. Viola pieces at The Getty Center (LA), The Guggenheim (NY & Berlin), The Tate Museum (London) the Venice Biennalle and is currently on screen at the National Art Gallery (London).
Fleck also works frequently in theater. A sampling of past work includes: A Perfect Wedding (Kirk Douglas Theater, LA), Applause (Reprise, UCLA), Noises Off (Cape Playhouse, Dennis, Mass), On the Jump (South Coast Rep), Small Craft Warnings, Cringe, The Berlin Circle (Evidence Room/LA), The Mystery of Irma Vep (Tiffany Theater/LA) & Tony Kushner’s adaptation of The Illusion (LATC) and The Granny (The Old Globe, San Diego).
A sampling of tv/film work includes: the new ABC series, The Evidence, The Closer, Carnivale, StarTrek Enterprise, Joan of Arcadia, NYPD Blue, Murder One, Seinfeld, PBS’s Tales of the City. Feature films include the soon to be released, Crazy, On_Line, Primary Suspect, Falling Down, Waterworld and many, many movies of the week that enable him financial fluidity to create his, not necessarily for profit, performance art.
