Miltos Manetas (1964-) is a Greek-born painter and multimedia artist who currently lives and works in Highgate,( North London). Manetas is known for his Internet Art as well as for his paintings of cables, computers, videogames and Internet websites (a few of these belong to the Charles Saatchi Collection) [1][2]. He is also the starter of the "Neen", an Internet Art-Movement.[3] According to New Media theorist Lev Manovich, Manetas is "The Painter of Contemporary Life".[4] [edit] Biography Manetas is born in Athens in 1964. He inmoved to Milan when he was 20 years old where he studied at Brera. In 1995 he was included in 'TRAFFIC" [3], the historical exhibition thar launced Relational Aesthetics that took part at the CAPC in Bordeaux and was curated by Nicolas Bourriaud. In the catalogue of this show and later, in Bourriaud's book "Relational Aesthetics",[5] Manetas was categorized as one of artists of that movement. But exactly at that point, Manetas decided to change his approach to Art: he abandon performances, objects and site specific installations and he started making paintings about computers eventually turning into the possibilities of creating Art by using video games and the Internet. In 1996; Manetas moved to New Yorkand took working heavily with video games, using Lara Croft and SuperMario as "ready-made" characters. On "SuperMario Sleeping", a video of 1998, SuperMario just sleeps under a tree while in "Flames", a video by 1997, Lara Croft is constantly dying. Both works were exhibited at the London ICA in the exhibition Made in Italy. It was at that occasion, when London's The Guardian published an a article on Manetas calling him the El Greco of the Geeks.[6] The following years, Manetas had many exhibitions all over the World. One the most important was the Elysian Fields at Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France [7] curated by the Purple Institute. Manetas was preparing an important middle-carrier museum show in Europe when he realized that everything had sadly become too professional for him. He interrupted the production of that retrospective, ceased his collaboration with the Postmasters Gallery that was rapresenting him in NY, stopped a catalogue that was collecting his work up to that point and commissioned to a California Branding Agency a new term that could bring a radical change to his work but also to the works of others. In Spring 2000, he finally presented the new name (Neen) to an exhibition-performance held at the Gagosian Gallery in New York. After the Gagosian presentation, he moved to Los Angeles where he started his ElectronicOrphanage enterprise. He hired young people with experience of contemporary art and/or design and he would ask them to abandon what they were doing and to test very different ideas instead, ideas towards the Internet. In 2002, Manetas presented the Whitneybiennial.com, an online exhibition that was challenging the 2002 Whitney Biennial show.[8][9] In 2007, London's Hayward Gallery commissioned to Manetas a special project on the idea of "Existential Computing", the new term he was using for his practice.[10] It was during that show that Manetas met Malcolm McLaren and they end up participating together at a pivotal show that artist Stephan Bruggemann curated at the I-20 gallery in NY in Sept 07.[11] Manetas' work for this exhibition was the show was a piece commissioned previously to him from Newcastles'Baltic Art Center and the British magazine Dazed & Confused for the "Dazed&Confussed versus Andy Warhol " exhibition: just a URL simply written on the wall: "http://www.ThankYouAndyWarhol.com. In 2009, Miltos Manetas together with curator Jan Aman, created the first ever "Internet Pavilion" for the Biennale di Venezia. As part of their work, they invited ThePirateBay and the Piratbyrån activists to participate and make their first "Embassy of Piracy".[12] [edit] One-man shows - 2008, THANKYOUANDYWARHOL.COM, Galería Casado Santapau, Madrid, Spain
- 2007, THE INTERNET PAINTINGS, Blow de la Barra Gallery, London , UK .
- 2006, DOGS AND CABLES, Yvon Lambert Gallery , NY . 2006, FEELINGS, Galleria Pack, Milan, Italy
- 2005, MANETAS AND ANIMATIONS, Sketch, London 2005, PRISCILLA 41, Kalfayan Gallery, Thessalonica, Greece.
- 2004, MEMOIRS OF THE DEVIL, Cosmic Gallery, Paris , France .
- 2002, JESUSSWIMMING (jesusswimming.com, a Website), Moca, Tucson , Arizona .
- 2000, NEEN, Gagosian Gallery, NY 2000, MURAKAMI-MANETAS, PinkSummer, Genoa
- 1999, AFTER VIDEOGAMES, Lux Gallery, London 1999, EIGHT PERFECT PAINTINGS, Lawing Gallery, Houston, Texas 1999, THE FABRIC OF REALITY ( after D. Deutsch), Rebecca Camhi Gallery, Athens
- 1998, MIRRORSITES 98, Postmasters Gallery , New York , Philippe Rizzo, Paris , Dan Bernier, Los Angeles .
- 1997, POINT TO POINT PROTOCOL, Rebecca Camhi Gallery, Athens
- 1996, SELECTED OBJECTS, Le Consortium Centre d'Art Contemporain, Dijon.
[edit] Group Shows - 2009, "PadiglioneInternet", First Internet Pavilion for the Venice Biennale, Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy.
- 2009, "Praga Biennial", Prague
- 2009, " "The Real Thing" Curated by VVORK, MU Eindhoven
- 2009, " "Club internet show" Curated by Club internet, Capricious Gallery, Brooklyn
- 2009, " "Random Rules" A channel of Artists, Curated by Marina Fokidis at the Pulse Art Fair NY
- 2009, " "Everyday Utopia" Curated by Marina Fokidis, think.21 Gallery, Rue du Mail.21, Brussels, Belgium.
- 2008, " ON TIME, EAST WING COLLECTION 8" The Courtauld Institute of Art, London, UK
- 2008, "Kunstmaschinen Maschinenkunst" (ART MACHINES MACHINE ART) Tinguely Museum, Basel, CH and Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, German
- 2008, "THE ALLIANCE, Hyundai Galleries, Beijing, China , Seoul, Korea.
- 2007, SHALLOW, Curated by Stefan Bruggemann, I-20 Gallery, NY,
- 2007, ON FAIT LE MUR, Curated by Jean-Marc Avrilla,Espace de l’Art Concret, Mouans Sartoux, France.
HER(HIS)STORY, Curated by Marina Fokidis at the Cycladic Museum in Athens. DAZED AND CONFUSED VERSUS ANDY WARHOL, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, UK. GAMEWORLD, Laboral,Gijon, Spain . - 2006, MIND GAMES, The Art of Videogames, Prince Charles Cinema, London. 2006, The Long Walk, Contemporary Art Museum, Athens, Greece. 2006, UNTITLED EXHIBITION, Rebecca Camhi Gallery, Athens . 2006, AN OUTING, Leonidas Beltsios Collection, Greece . 2006, SUPERNEEN, Galleria Pack, Milan .
- 2005, VALENCIA BIENNIAL, Valencia 2005, PRAGUE BIENNIAL II, Prague, THE LOOP OF NEEN, Loop Art Fair, Barcelona , 2005, FRIEZE ART FAIR (with Rebecca Camhi Gallery), 2005, ELECTROSCAPE, Zendai Museum, Shanghai, China, 2005, FROM NEEN TO SONAR, Sonar Festival, Barcelona, 2005, NEEN DAY, Sketch, London, 2005, DOMUS CIRCULAR, San Siro, Milan, Italy , 2005, COHABITATS, Ghislaine Hussenot Gallery, Paris.
- 2004, MEDIACITY SEOUL, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea 2004, FRIEZE ART FAIR: "Internet Paintings", London 2004, DIGITAL SUBLIME, New Masters of Universe", Taipei Moca, Taiwan 2004, NEENTODAY, MU Foundation, Eindhoven, Holland 2004, CURIOUS WISHES, Palais De Tokyo, Paris. 2004, NEWS FROM HOME The Annex, NY. 2004, COPY ART, ICA, London
- 2003, TIRANA BIENNIAL, Tirana, Albania 2003, NOWN Wood Street Galleries, Pittsburgh, USA
- 2002, WHITNEYBIENNIAL.COM, NY 2002: URGENT PAINTING, Museum of Modern Art, Paris, FR 2002: MEDIACITY SEOUL, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea, 2002: AFTERNEEN, Casco, Utrecht, Holland
- 2001, BIENNALE.NET BY THE ELECTRONICORPHANAGE, Deitch projects 2001, MY REALITY: The Culture of Anime and Contemporary Art" Des Moines Art Center, Brooklyn Museum of Art, NY
- 2000, PRESUMED INNOCENT, CAPC Museum of Contemporary Art, Bordeaux, FR, 2000, ELYSIAN FIELDS, Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2000, Synopsis 1, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, GR
- 1999, LE CAPITAL Contemporary Art Center of Sete, FR, 1999, Active Worlds CHELSEA, ARCO ART FAIR -Galleria New Santandrea
- 1997, FATTO IN ITALIA, Contemporary Art from Italy, Centre d'Art Contemporain, Geneva 1997, Made in Italy, ICA, London.
- 1996, SHOPPING, Deitch projects, Guggenheim Museum Soho, NYC 1996, TRAFFIC, CAPC Museum of Contemporary Art, Bordeaux, FR 1996, BEIGE, Saga Basement, Copenhagen
- 1993, SCHONHEIT MACHT SCHAMHAFT, Aschenbach Gallery, Amsterdam
[edit] Performances - 2007, Existential Computing, Hayward Gallery, London , UK . 2007, Abstract SuperMario Performance, The MTV Party, Fargfabrinken, Stockholm.
- 2005, Neen Day, Sketch, London,
- 2001-2003, ElectronicOrphanage, Los Angeles.
[edit] LOCATION OF WORKS/COLLECTIONS - The Saatchi Collection, London , UK
- Dakis Joannou, Greece
- Museum of Contemporary Art, Rome, Italy
- Musée d'Art Contemporain, Strasbourg, France
[edit] Books and Publications - 2006, Neen, by Miltos Manetas, Charta Editore, Milan 2004, Selected Emails, by Miltos Manetas, Onestar Press, Paris 2005, Distant Explosions, by Miltos Manetas, ElectronicOrphanage Press, LA, 2005, Self Portrait in Googlism, a book by Miltos Manetas, ElectronicOrphanage Press, LA, 2005, The book of Others, by Miltos Manetas, ElectronicOrphanage Press, LA , 2000, Active Worlds: Chelsea, Chicago Project Room, Chicago AW CHELSEA, LUX CINEMA, London
[edit] References [edit] External links |
