John F. Simon Jr.
John F. Simon Jr. (1963, Louisiana), is a new media artist who works with LCD screens and computer programming. He currently lives and works in New York City.
Simon holds several degrees: a BA in Art Studio and a BS in Geology from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, (1985), a Master’s degree in Earth and Planetary Science from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri (1987), and a MFA in Computer Art from the School of Visual Arts in New York (1989). He is the recipient of the Trustees’ Award for an Emerging Artist from the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, Connecticut in 2000, and the Creative Capital Emerging Fields Award in 1999.[1]
Simon has exhibited internationally, including New York City, Santa Fe, Berlin and Haifa. His work is found in prominent museum collections such as the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, University of Iowa Museum of Art and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California. Simon's first European solo exhibition, Color and Time, was held September 17 - October 24, 2008 at Galería Javier López in Madrid, Spain.[2] In 2009 he had a solo exhibition in Italy, "Outside In: Ten Years of Software Art" at the Maramotti Collection, Reggio Emilia, Italy.[3] Simon's HD Traffic video was part of the exhibition "The Poetics of Code: John F. Simon Jr. and Eduardo Kac" at the Chelsea Art Museum.[4]
In the 1990s, Simon began writing digital software to create visual imagery. His screen works display abstractions that vary infinitely due to random sequencing. The visual elements of each piece are generated in real time by his software.[5]
More recently, Simon has made a series of large-scale compositions that incorporate laser-cut Formica and LCD screens with perpetually changing software. Each LCD screen is housed in cabinet-like structure made from Formica, which is also created by Simon’s coding. In addition to his screen work, Simon is also known for his Formica cutouts, drawings on paper and digital projections of his custom software.
References
- Notes
- ↑ Gering & López Gallery - John F. Simon Jr. - Biography
- ↑ Galería Javier López Color and Time exhibit page
- ↑ http://www.collezionemaramotti.org/en/The-Project
- ↑ "The Poetics of Code: Part 1" at the Streaming Museum
- ↑ Wolf Lieser. Digital Art. Langenscheidt: h.f. ullmann. 2009. p. 135
- Bibliography
- Pollack, Barbara. "John F. Simon Jr.: Winds Across the Inner Sea" Time Out New York (October 2007)
- Princenthal, Nancy. "John Simon Jr.: At Gering & López" Art in America, (April 2008)
- Baumgärtel, Tilman (2001). net.art 2.0 - New Materials towards Net art. Nürnberg: Verlag für Moderne Kunst Nürnberg. ISBN 978-3-933096-66-1.