Jim Campbell (US)

Jim Campbell (born 1956, Chicago) studied mathematics and engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) before moving to San Francisco. In the mid-1980s, he shifted from experimental filmmaking to interactive video installations, and in 2000 began working primarily with visual perception and low-resolution imagery. His electronic sculptures and installations established him as one of the leading figures in the use of digital technology as an artistic medium. Campbell employs technologies originally developed for transmitting and storing information to explore the nature of human perception and memory. His work is characterised by low-resolution LED grids that produce pixelated moving images reduced to the threshold of human perception. Operating on the boundary between representation and abstraction, his installations explore the mind’s remarkable ability to interpret incomplete information and instinctively “fill in the missing pieces”.

Campbell’s work has been exhibited internationally at institutions including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) and the International Center of Photography in New York. His works are held in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met), among others. His honours include the Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship in Multimedia and a Guggenheim Fellowship.