BIO
Christopher O’Leary is an artist who works at the intersection of science, futurism and fantasy to create technologically experimental works of animation, photography and installation. His work borrows from an array of sources such as science fiction, comic books, popular film, and the hard sciences. Recent projects include a generative animation visualizing black holes, a series of hacked digital images of performances, and an apocalyptic animation made of thousands of photographs contemplating our fragile resources. He is currently a visiting researcher at the UCLA ArtSci Research Center working on his current project titled Cloud Chambers. He is a founding member of the artist collective called Speculative which has exhibited and programmed events around Los Angeles. These include a series of events at Machine Project bringing artists and scientists together to discuss Dark Matter, and an exhibition at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions about speculative fiction and art. Christopher has shown his work in Seattle, Los Angeles, Belgrade, Istanbul, Rome, and Torun, Poland. Christopher received his MFA from UCLA and his BFA and BA from the University of Washington. He lives in Los Angeles, CA.
CV
EDUCATION
2008 MFA – University of California Los Angeles
2004 BFA – University of Washington, Photography
BA – University of Washington, Interdisciplinary Art
SELECTED TEACHING
2015 – Present Full-Time Faculty, Photography, Pasadena City College
2010 – 2015 Full-Time Instructor, Digital Photography, Art Institute of CA Hollywood
2008 – 2014 Part-Time Lecturer, Digital Photography, UCLA, Dept. of Design Media Arts
RESIDENCIES & FELLOWSHIPS
2016 Artist in Residence, Carnegie Observatories, Las Campanas, Chile
2014-15 Visiting Researcher, UCLA Art|Sci Research Center
2012 Ucross Foundation Fellowship & Residency
2009 Atlantic Center for the Arts: Associate Artist in video/performance to Carole Kim
2007 Real-Presence Floating Sites, Artist Residency, Istanbul, Turkey
Real-Presence, Artist Residency, Belgrade, Serbia
2004 Vain Free-Thinking Artist Residency, Seattle, WA
CURATORIAL
2012 “Dark Matter III”, Machine Project, w/ Ryan Trecartin, Brody Condon & Joe Hamilton.
“Dark Matter II”, Machine Project, w/ Michael Kontopoulos, Pinar Yoldas, Zach Blas
“Dark Matter I”, Machine Project, w/ Ricardo Dominguez and Jennifer Siegal-Gaskins
2011 “SPECULATIVE”, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Exhibition, Performances, Panel, Publication.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
Solo Exhibitions
2013
“Black (W)hole”, Collaborative Installation, Emerson Center for the Arts, Bozeman MT
2009
Multiverse > Future and Dust – ALI-Rome, Italy
2006
Light Play, Swingset Films Gallery, Seattle, WA
Group Exhibitions
2016 (upcoming) “Black (W)hole”, UC Santa Cruz Institute of the Arts and Sciences
(upcoming) “Things To Come”, Pitach Tikva Museum, Tel Aviv
2015 “Via Negativa”, South Bay Contemporary, San Pedro, CA
“Black (W)hole”, Cambridge Science Festival
“Xerodrome”, New Music Festival, San Francisco, CA
2014 “Black (W)hole”, Permanent, Chabot Space & Science Center, Oakland, CA
“Black (W)hole”, Brownsville Museum of Fine Art, Brownsville, TX
“Xerodrome”, Sphaerae Experimental Gallery, AxS Festival, Pasadena, CA
2013 “Black (Whole)”, MSU Planetarium, Bozeman MT.
“Familiar Spirit”, Performance, Marsh Chapel, Boston University, Boston, MA
2012 “Bandwagon”, Group Performance, Machine Project, Los Angeles, CA
“Render: New Construction in Video Art”, CA Museum of Photography, Riverside, CA
2011 “ARTifact: 53K”, Sixth College Art Gallery, UCSD, San Diego, CA
“Calamity Tales”, Performance, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles, CA
“Speculative”, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles, CA
“Spaceship Earth”, Center for Contemporary Art, Torun Poland
“Beta-Release”, Six-Pack Projects, Long Beach, CA
2010 Santa Monica Glow Festival, Santa Monica, CA
“Real Presence X” – National Museum, Belgrade Serbia
2009 “Pluto” – Group Performance, Atlantic Center for the Arts, New Smyrna Beach, FL
2008 “Exit Strategies” – MFA Exhibition, New Wight Gallery, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
LECTURES & PERFORMANCES
2014 “Cloud Chambers” UCLA Art-Science Center Summer Institute, Los Angeles, CA
2011 “SPECULATIVE”, Curator Talk, LACE, Los Angeles, CA
“Calamity Tales”, Performance, LACE, Los Angeles, CA
2010 Artist Talk, Los Angeles Dorkbot, Machine Project, Los Angeles, CA
Practicum: Generative Form and Code, CalArts, Santa Clarita, CA
PUBLICATIONS & BIBLIOGRAPHY
2015 Via Negativa: Exhibition Catalogue, James McDevott
Cloud Chambers Interview, Folio Magazine, Pasadena Arts Council, Winter 2015
2014 Black (W)hole, Leonoardo, Spring 2014
Casalegno, Mattia, “The SPECULATIVE Exhibition.”, Digicult, 08.2011
2012 “SPECULATIVE”, Drunken Boat Literary Magazine #15
2011 “SPECULATIVE”, Catalogue and Reader for LACE, Editor w/ Zach Blas
“Spaceship Earth”, Center for Contemporary Art, Torun Poland, curator Dobrila Denegri
2009 Multiverse > Directions for the world > Christopher O’Leary > Future & Dust
2008 Exit Strategies – Exhibition Catalogue
2007 Sabine Zurel, “100 jaar toekomst,” BRIGHT 19 (December-January 2008), 16.
AWARDS
2015 PCC Foundation Faculty Grant – Academic Excellence Award
Creative Capital Award Finalist, Visual Arts
2007 D|MA Travel Grant
Eugene Wurzel Memorial Fellowship UCLA
2006 UCLA Regents Stipend
Vain Grant
2004 UW School of Art, Graduating With Excellence Award
2002 Parnassus Scholarship, UW
1997 Paul and Mary Haas Foundation Grant, Corpus Christi, TX