Tony Oursler

Tony Oursler is an American multimedia artist renowned for his expertise in working with moving images, installations, and projections.

Biography of Tony Oursler

Tony Oursler was born in 1957 in Manhattan, New York, USA. He studied at the California Institute for the Arts in Valencia, California, graduating with a BFA in 1979. At CalArts, Tony Oursler's contemporaries included Mike Kelley, Sue Williams, Stephen Prina, and Jim Shaw. Notably, his instructors were John Baldessari and Laurie Anderson.

Oursler returned to New York in 1981. In 1999, he relocated to a studio near New York City Hall.

Tony Oursler is renowned for his fragmented narrative handmade videotapes, notably including "The Loner" (1980) and "EVOL" (1984). His early installation works comprise immersive dark-room environments integrating video, sound, and language with vibrant constructed sculptural elements. Through these projects, Oursler explored techniques for removing the moving image from the video monitor using reflections in water, mirrors, glass, and other mediums.

In 1991, Oursler began utilizing small LCD video projectors in his installations, as evidenced in "The Watching," presented at documenta 9, which introduced his first video doll and dummy. Among his signature works are his talking lights, exemplified by "Streetlight" (1997), his series of video sculptures featuring eyes with television screens reflected in the pupils, and unsettling talking heads such as "Composite Still Life" (1999).

In 2000, the Public Art Fund and Artangel commissioned Oursler's "Influence Machine," marking his first major outdoor project. Additionally, in 2009, he created a series of commissioned video installations at the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Astoria, New York.

Tony Oursler's recent solo exhibitions include "Tony Oursler: Anomalous" at Photo Elysée in Lausanne (2022), "Tony Oursler: Black Box" at Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts in Kaohsiung City (2021), "Hypnose" at Musée d'arts de Nantes in Nantes (2020), and many more. He also had solo showcases at numerous venues worldwide, including Lisson Gallery, Redling Fine Art, Hans Mayer Gallery, Lehmann Maupin, Baldwin Gallery, among others.

Tony Oursler's Art Style

Grounded deeply in a conceptual framework, Tony Oursler creates multimedia and immersive experiences that merge traditional artistic tools with cutting-edge technologies. Renowned for his exploration of moving images, installation, and projection, Oursler draws inspiration from a broad spectrum of pop cultural phenomena, including telecommunications, narrative evolution, conspiracy theories, social media, facial recognition, mysticism, and environmental concerns.

His works often embody a "palimpsest," intertwining potential futures with recent pasts while addressing contemporary issues. In recent years, Oursler has leveraged his extensive archive in conjunction with installations to blur the lines between art, factual information, and belief systems. Since 2000, he has produced numerous public works involving light and projection onto architectural structures and natural landscape features such as water, trees, and smoke, as well as sculptural objects like cast bronze and stone.

Oursler's multimedia and audio-visual practice continues to evolve, employing projections, computers, video screens, sculptures, and optical devices to create large-scale installations, intimate digital representations, ethereal talking automatons, or immersive and occasionally chaotic environments. Referencing a future dominated by digital networking and identity production, while also echoing elements of phantasmagoria, camera obscura, and psychedelia, Oursler remains acutely aware of the viewer's role as a participant in his artwork.