Biography
C. E. B. REAS (b. 1972, United States) lives and works in Los Angeles. His software, prints, and installations have been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions at museums and galleries in the United States, Europe, and Asia.
REAS' ongoing Process series explores the relationship between naturally evolved systems and those that are synthetic. The imagery evokes transformation, and visualizes systems in motion and at rest. Equally embracing the qualitative human perception and the quantitative rules that define digital culture, organic form emerges from precise mechanical structures.
REAS is a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. He holds a masters degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Media Arts and Sciences as well as a bachelors degree from the School of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning at the University of Cincinnati. With Ben Fry, REAS initiated Processing in 2001. Processing is an open source programming language and environment for creating images, animation, and interaction.
REAS and Fry published Processing: A Programming Handbook for Visual Designers and Artists, a comprehensive introduction to programming within the context of visual media (MIT Press, 2007). In 2010, they publishing Getting Started with Processing, a casual introduction to programming (O'Reilly, 2010). With Chandler McWilliams and Lust, REAS is published Form+Code in Design, Art, and Architecture (PAPress, 2010), a non-technical introduction to the history, theory, and practice of software in the arts.
Reas is the recipient of a 2008 Tribeca Film Institute Media Arts Fellowship (supported by the Rockefeller Foundation), a 2005 Golden Nica award from the Prix Ars Electronica, and he was included in the 2008 ArtReview Power 100. His images have been featured in various publications including The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune, Print, Eye, Technology Review, and Wired.
Solo, Two-Person Exhibitions
Transfers and Actions: C.E.B. Reas and Ellie Harrison. Mejan Labs, Royal Academy of Fine Arts. Stockholm, Sweden. 15 Apr - 7 Jun 2009. Exhibited Process 18.
CODE and FORM: C.E.B. Reas & Marius Watz. Pittsburgh Center for the Arts. Pittsburgh, PA. 7 Feb - 19 Apr 2009. Exhibited works from the Process series, curated by Golan Levin.
Process / Form. bitforms gallery. New York, NY. 6 Mar - 12 Apr 2008. Debut of new work from the Process series.
The Protean Image. <>TAG. The Hague, Netherlands. 19 Sep - 3 Nov 2007. Debut of The Protean Image Machine.
Microstates: C.E.B. Reas & Austin Heitzman. James Edward Carlos Gallery, University of the South. Sewanee, TN. 16 Nov 2007 - 9 Jan 2008. Exhibited Process 14 and 18.
C.E.B. Reas & Suzung Kim. bitforms gallery. Seoul, Korea. 15 Dec 2006 - 27 Jan 2007. Debut of new work from the Process series.
Natural. BANK gallery. Los Angeles, CA. Two-person exhibition with Betsy Davis, exhibited TI.
Process / Drawing. [DAM] Berlin. Berlin, Germany. 2 Oct - 23 Nov 2005. Exhibited work from the Process series.
Process / Drawing. bitforms gallery. New York, NY. 4 Mar - 3 Apr 2005. Debut of the Process series, including collaborations with Ben Fry and Doug Bennett.
TI, Telic Arts Exchange, Los Angeles. 15 May 2004. Debut of TI.
The Art of Code: C.E.B. Reas and Golan Levin. bitforms gallery. New York, NY. 21 Feb - 20 Mar 2002.
Recent Group Exhibitions
2010
Immuring. SCI-Arc Gallery. Los Angeles, CA. 4 Jun - 18 Jul 2010. Debut of Immuring, a set of sculptures by davidclovers Architects, in collaboration with C.E.B. Reas.
E-Volve. Gallery [DAM]Cologne. Cologne, Germany. 24 Apr - 24 Jun 2010. Exhibited Network A.
Process Becomes Paradigm. Laboral Centro de Arte y Creatión Industrial. Gijon, Spain. 23 Apr - 27 Sep 2010. Exhibited Process 18, along with its objects and prints, curated by Susanne Jaschko and Lucas Evers.
Code:Craft. Millennium Gallery. Sheffield, UK. 27 Jan - 16 Jun 2010. Exhibited Network A.
2009
Decode: Digital Design Sensations. Victoria & Albert Museum, Porter Gallery. London, UK. 8 Dec 2009 - 11 April 2010. Exhibited TI.
Vida_Origen. Museu del Montsià. Amposta, Spain. 7 Nov - 8 Dec 2009. Exhibited Network B.
OPEN. Gray Area Foundation for the Arts. San Francisco, CA. 1 Oct - 18 Nov 2009. Exhibition of C.E.B. Reas, Camille Utterback, and Stamen. Debut of Surface, Network A, Network B, and a selection of prints and objects from the Process series.
Collider: Interactivity and New Media. Emily Davis Gallery, Myers School of Art. Akron, OH. Debut of Protean Image Machine 2009.
HelloWorld.show();. CreateHere. Chattanooga, TN. 31 Jul - 12 Sep 2009. Exhibited Pre-process Execution and Pre-process Hex.
Art and Electronic Media. bitforms gallery. New York, NY. 16 Jun - 10 Jul 2009. Exhibited Process 8 (Image 1).
Incognito 2009, Santa Monica Museum of Art. Santa Monica, CA. 2 May 2009. Debut of a new drawing.
Loops. MIT Museum. Cambridge, MA. 24 Apr - 10 May 2009. Debut of Merce, an interpretation of a motion-captured performance of Merce Cunningham performing Loops.
Abstract Cinema. Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami. North Miami, FL. 26 Mar - 10 May 2009. Exhibited Process 16, curated by Bonnie Clearwater, in association with Kevin Arrow.
I'll be your mirror. BANK gallery. Los Angeles, CA. 21 Feb - 28 Mar 2009. Exhibited Fissue, curated by Lorraine Molina.
Scalable Relations. Beall Center for Art + Technology. Irvine, CA. 9 Jan - 14 Mar 2009. Exhibited Process 16, curated by Christiane Paul.
2008
eLandscapes. Zendai Museum of Modern Art. Shanghai, China. 19 Oct - 16 Nov 2008. Exhibiting MicroImage as a large projection, curated by Richard Castelli.
Algorists 2008. Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP), University of California, Santa Barbara. Santa Barbara, CA. Opened 25 Sep 2008. Curated by Jean-Pierre Hebert.
Processing Light. Todays Art Festival 2008. The Hague, Netherlands. 26 - 27 Sep 2008. Maxalot curated light projections onto the VROM building, across from the central station in The Hague.
Matters of Sensation. Artists Space. New York, NY. 24 Sep - 15 Nov 2008. Exhibited 07 Masses, an architectural model developed in collaboration with the architecture studio davidclovers.
Breeding Objects. C.STEM 2008. Turin, Italy. 19 - 27 Sep 2008. Exhibited Tissue Collection, a collaboration between 1 of 1 Studio and C.E.B. Reas. Other arists and designers include Ammar Eloueini, Ebru Kurbak and Mahir Yavuz, Adrian Bowyer, Nervous System, MOS, Marc Fornes, Fluid Forms, and Susanne Stauch.
5th Seoul International Media Art Biennale. Seoul, Korea. 12 Sep - 5 Nov 2008. Exhibiting TI. Other artists include Julien Maire, Anish Kapoor, and Olafur Eliasson.
Alt_CHP: Platform for Nordic Non-profit Art Spaces. 19 - 21 Sep 2008. Showed Network 2008 as a projection in association with Mikrogalleriet, DK.
Media Cabaret at the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival. Philadelphia, PA. 29 Aug - 13 Sep 2008. Large ambient projections of Process 14 and Process 16, curated by Lars Jan.
Imaging by Numbers: A Historical View of the Computer Print. Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University. Evanston, IL. Curated by Deborah Wood and Paul Hertz, surveys the use of computers in printmaking and drawing through approximately 60 works created by nearly 40 North American and European artists from the 1950s to the present. Exhibited Process 6 (Image 3) and Path 17.
Space, Color, and Motion. Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University. Evanston, IL. 18 Jan - 6 Apr 2008. Curated by Deborah Wood. Exhibited TI along with work from Manfred Mohr and James Paterson.
Project(or) Art Fair, Art Rotterdam. Rotterdam, Netherlands. 6 - 10 Feb 2008. Exhibited The Protean Image Machine.
Impermanent Markings. Pratt Manhattan Gallery, New York. 6 Mar - 17 Apr 2008. Curated by Linda Lauro-Lazin, features work from Jean-Pierre Hebert, Ana Mendieta, Oscar Munoz, The OpenEnded Group: Marc Downie, Shelley Eshkar, and Paul Kaiser, Carolee Schneemann, and Camille Utterback.
At Random? Netwerken en kruisbestuivingen. Museum De Paviljoens. Almere, Netherlands. 5 Mar - 6 Apr 2008. Exhibited The Protean Image Machine.
Holy Fire. iMAL Center, Brussels. 18 - 30 Apr 2008. Exhibited Process 5, curated by Yves Bernard and Domenico Quaranta.
Digital Senses. Center for Contemporary Art, Kiev, Ukraine. 18 Apr - 11 May 2008. Exhibited Tissue software in an exhibition curated by Ars Electronica.
Expanded Box at ARCO 2008. Madrid, Spain. 13 - 18 Feb 2008. Exhibited TI.
2007
Ars Electronica - Digital Art and Magic Moments. Shanghai eArts Festival 2007. 20 Oct - 10 Nov 2007. Shanghai, China. Exhibited Tissue software.
Tissue Collection. Concrete Image Store. Amsterdam, Netherlands. 19 Sep - 3 Nov 2007. Debuted the Tissue Collection, a series of garments created in collaboration with 1 of 1 Studio.
Ephemeral: Explorations in Light. Claremont Museum of Art. Claremont CA. 16 Sep - 30 Dec 2007. Exhibited TI, curated by Pilar Tompkins.
Scriptedbypurpose. FUEL Collection. Philadelphia, PA. 7 - 20 Sep 2007. Exhibited Process 8 (Image 2) and Process 14, curated by Marc Fornes and Skylar Tibbits.
Summer Group Exhibition. bitforms gallery. New York, NY. 25 May - 20 Jun 2007. Exhibited Process 11.
Taste, 28th Annual Benefit Auction. LACE. Los Angeles, CA. 19 May 2007. Donated a Process 6 (Puff) print.
Persee: Orchestrated Perception. Regent Theater. Los Angeles, CA. 10 May 2007. Live visual performance of Process 11, in collaboration with Drew Schnurr.
FEEDBACK. Laboral Centro de Arte. Gijón, Spain. 30 Mar - 30 Jun 2007. Debuted Process 4 (Installation 1) at inaugural exhibition for a new art center in northern Spain. Curated by Christiane Paul.
2006
Design Life Now: National Design Triennial. Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution. New York, NY. 8 Dec 2006 - 29 Jul 2007. Traveled to Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (28 Sep 2007 - 6 Jan 2008) and Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (26 Jan - 20 Apr 2008). Exhibited Process 6 (Image 4) and Processing.org.
Cybernetic Sensibility. Daelim Contemporary Art Museum. Seoul, Korea. 26 Oct 2006 - 21 Jan 2007. Exhibited Process 6 (Image 3).
Texelectronica. UNT Fort Worth ArtSpace. Fort Worth, TX. 26 - 28 Oct 2006. Debuted Process 9 (Installation 1).
Further Processing. Kunstverein MEDIENTURM. Graz, Austria. 23 Sep - 11 Nov 2006. Exhibited Process 9. Curated by Marius Watz. With Pablo Miranda Carranza, Fabio Franchino, Ben Fry, Golan Levin, Lia, Mark Napier, Karsten Schmidt, and Martin Wattenberg.
Interferenze New Arts Festival. Naturalis Electronica. San Martino Valle Caudina, Italy. 3 - 5 Aug 2006. Exhibited a triptych projection of Process 6, 7, and 8.
Drawing / Painting / Sketching. CCCB. Barcelona, Spain. 11-12 May 2006. Curated by Jose Luis de Vicente, held on conjunction with the OFFF festival. Exhibited a triptych projection of Process 6, 7, and 8.
Our Distance from Things. Telic Arts Exchange. Los Angeles, CA. 17 Mar - 7 Apr 2007. Exhibited video of MicroImage.
Drawing Conclusions on the Wall. Chapman University. Orange, CA. Spring 2006. Exhibited Process 6 (Puff) prints.
ARTEFACT Festival. STUK Arts Centre. Leuven, Belgium. 13 - 18 Feb 2006. Exhibited MicroImage software as a projection.
Software Art. DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA. 28 Jan - 16 Apr 2006. Exhibited Articulate and Tissue software.
Second Natures. UCLA. Los Angeles, CA. 14 Sep - 26 Oct 2006. UCLA Design Media Arts faculty exhibition curated by Christiane Paul for the opening of the Broad Art Center. Exhibited Process 4.
Manifesto: GenArt. DesignBlok. Prague, Czech Republic. 25 Sep - 20 Oct 2006.
La Noche en Blanco. Madrid, Spain. 23 Sep 2006. Projected Process 7 during this one-night festival.
Living Culture. Eyebeam. New York, NY. 27 Jul 2006. Screened video of MicroImage, curated by Melanie Crean and Sophie Springer.