Cory Arcangel

Cory Arcangel is an American post-conceptual artist who creates across various mediums, including drawing, music, video, performance art, and video game modifications.

Biography of Cory Arcangel

Cory Arcangel, born in 1978 in New York, USA, grew up in Buffalo, New York. He attended the Nichols School, where he excelled as a lacrosse goalie. During this period, he was introduced to experimental video artists such as Nam June Paik through the Squeaky Wheel Buffalo Media Arts Center.

In addition to his interest in visual arts, Arcangel developed a passion for guitar, dedicating up to eight hours a day to practice. He initially pursued classical guitar studies at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, later shifting his focus to the technology of music and graduating in 2000.

Arcangel gained acclaim for his innovative Nintendo game cartridge hacks and adaptations of obsolete computer systems from the 1970s and 80s. Notably, his work "Super Mario Clouds" (2002) garnered attention, featuring a modified version of the popular video game Super Mario Bros. for Nintendo's NES game console.

Other renowned Arcangel's works include "I Shot Andy Warhol" (2002), "Totally Fucked" (2003), "Pizza Party" (2004), "Sans Simon" (2004), and "Tetris Screwed" (2004).

In 2009, Arcangel received a diagnosis of thyroid cancer, which resulted in concentration and memory difficulties due to his treatments. During this period, he experienced a complete loss of short-term memory. This condition temporarily impacted his artistic output, leading him to produce works he described as "hyper-structuralist" or lacking in "real content." Following the removal of his lymph nodes, he was effectively cured of the disease.  

In 2015, the artist moved to Norway, where he currently lives and works.

His recent solo exhibitions include "Errors and Omissions" at Lisson Gallery in Shanghai (2023), "3-" at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac in Salzburg (2022), "Midnight Moment" at Times Square Arts in New York (2022), and many more. 

Cory Arcangel's Art Style

Arcangel delves into the capabilities and limitations of both outdated and cutting-edge digital technologies, emphasizing their eventual obsolescence, humor, aesthetic qualities, and occasionally unsettling impact on contemporary society. Employing a semi-archaeological approach, his artistic practice scrutinizes, interprets, and manipulates the underlying structures of video games, software, social media platforms, and machine learning systems, treating them as both subject matter and artistic medium.

Cory Arcangel frequently employs the artistic technique of appropriation, creatively repurposing existing materials such as dance pads, Photoshop gradients, and YouTube videos to construct innovative artworks. Through his work, he investigates the intricate interplay between digital technology and popular culture.