Rosten Woo is an artist, designer, writer, and educator who produces civic-scale artworks. Woo develops projects that help people better understand complex systems, reorient themselves to the places they live, and participate in civic processes. Woo establishes a collaborative process for working closely with a variety of participants and practitioners, including youth, scientists, city administrators, and cultural institutions. In this way, he creates platforms for the sharing of ideas and collective knowledge. Based in Los Angeles, Woo is a consultant to numerous grassroots nonprofit organizations including the Black Workers Center, Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, and the Esperanza Community Housing.
His work has been exhibited at the Cooper-Hewitt Design Triennial; the Venice Architecture Biennale; Netherlands Architectural Institute; Storefront for Art and Architecture; Lower East Side Tenement Museum; and various piers, public housing developments, tugboats, shopping malls, and parks in New York and Los Angeles. His work has been supported by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, and the Los Angeles County Arts Commission. He is cofounder and former executive director of the Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP), a New York–based nonprofit dedicated to using art and design to foster civic participation. He has written on design, politics, and music for such publications as the Village Voice, Rolling Stone, Los Angeles Review of Books, and Metropolis Magazine. His book, Street Value, was published by Princeton Architectural Press in 2010.
