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My work as an artist is a conceptual practice that bridges studio work and public organizing of artist projects, actions, and interventions. This multi faceted practice is consistent with a generation of practitioners who challenged existing power structures found in our governmental and cultural institutions which were discriminatory. The process of revisionism, wide use of different materials, an absorption with image/text productions are part of this generation that is now well established for those who are still working.

In recent years I have written extensively on artists ideas, and what cultural production means in a time of war. I am deeply concerned with artists and their issues related to social responsibility, social justice, and how these investigations are translated into coherent works of art accessible to a wide public.

Early in my career, I was a pioneer in the Xerox art movement, and worked in alternative and experimental venues in the downtown New York art scene. I combined this work with my training as a painter, which I received in Vienna, Austria, during the Vietnam war when I chose to study abroad rather than be conscripted into the war. This was a seminal experience, and being a person of conscience has informed and influenced my entire project in ways that are diverse, formally rigorous, but at the core, humanistic in their intention.

In the past fifteen years I have been occupied with projects that are conceptual and partly performative in their premise, and often use digital media and photography. For example, a series of panoramic and animated photographs were photographed out of a train window in Japan and at first glance they are beautiful and lyrical. Upon closer examination, it becomes clear that it is really an examination of the mitigating affects of industrial architecture on the natural landscape. A second project looked at sport metaphors to show how men can be mediators (as opposed to instigators) of violent conflict. Entitled “The Artist Clayton Campbell Referees the Real Deal Evander Holyfield”, I did referee a boxing match with the then world heavyweight boxing champion. The resulting photographs of this ‘artist action’ were sent to difficult locations for exhibition in countries such as Northern Ireland and Croatia, where civil war has plagued their communities. Most recently I have been involved with an interactive photographic installation in which I photograph visitors to the exhibition and ultimately include them in the final installation. Entitled “Words My Son Has Learned Since 9-11” this project since 2005 has been exhibited at MEP, the main photo museum in Paris; LACMA in Los Angeles; and art centers in Northern Ireland and Poland, and it continues to grow and tour.

Currently I am working at the KALA Printmaking Studio (where I have been invited to be artist in residence) on large scale photo-based prints of stills I have taken from iconic action and adventure films of the 1960’s and 1970’s, looking for images ‘between’ the frames which feel familiar, yet are hard to place, and foreground the romantic notions we develop and perpetuate towards violence, sexuality and false heroism.

1629 18th Street
Santa Monica, CA 90404
ccampbell@18thstreet.org

www.claytoncampbell.com

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