Robert Rauschenberg (b.1925, d. 2008)
Born in Texas, Robert Rauschenberg was an interdisciplinary artist who didn’t just break a few rules of the art world, he threw out the rule book and rewrote it.
Over the span of his six-decade career, he was considered by many to be one of the most influential American artists due to his radical blending of materials and methods. Working in a wide range of subjects, styles, materials, and techniques he did not restrain himself to one movement and his oeuvre ranged from paintings to photography, mixed media and even avant-garde performance pieces.
His unique approaches to painting, sculpture, print, photography, and performance shaped the artworld. Rauschenberg lived and worked in New York City and on Captiva Island, Florida, until his death on May 12, 2008.
Camille Utterback (b.1970)
Currently based in California, Indiana-born artist Camille Utterback stands at the fore of interactive art. Utterback programs custom algorithms for the purpose of “embodiment,” where viewers can sense their bodily presence in a virtual environment. Utterback uses her digital tools to generate a style of art known as Digital Abstraction, which updates a previous generation’s innovations in traditional media with data computation and the processing power of microchips. Utterback said, “The rules of Untitled 5 are carefully constructed to create an overall composition that is organic, open, and evocative, while still being completely algorithmic.”
Neil Mendoza (b. 1977)
Neil Mendoza, born in the UK, based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Mendoza combines sculpture, electronics and software to bring inanimate objects and spaces to life. By combining found objects with technology in unexpected ways, the different elements of his work can be looked at from a new perspective. He explores themes of the absurd, the humorous, the futile and the surreal. He has exhibited work and talked at conferences around the world, taught classes on art and technology at UCLA and Stanford, and co-founded the art collective, is this good?
Iván Navarro (b.1972)
Currently based in New York, Chilean artist Iván Navarro uses light as his raw material, turning objects into electric sculptures and transforming the exhibition space by means of visual interplay. His work is certainly playful but is also haunted by questions of power, control and imprisonment. The act of usurping the minimalist aesthetic is an ever-present undercurrent, becoming the pretext for understated political and social criticism.