Short Biography

Richard Jochum (photograph) is a conceptual artist working in a broad variety of media with a strong focus on video, interactive installation, performance, and photography. He is a studio member at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts and an associate professor of art and art education at Teachers College, Columbia University. He has worked in various media since the late 1990s and has had more than 200 international exhibitions and screenings. Richard Jochum received his PhD from the University of Vienna (1997) and an MFA in sculpture and media art from the University of Applied Arts in Vienna (2001). His art practice is accompanied by publications and research in the field of cultural theory, new media, and contemporary art and he has been awarded several grants and prizes. One of his latest large scale art installations has been a 30,000 square feet collaborative video mapping project onto the Manhattan Bridge.

Artist's Statment

1) I am a post-conceptual sculptor and media artist drawing from a variety of artistic practices reaching from land and public art to social sculptures, installation, photography, video, and artist's books. To cross boundaries has become a hallmark of my practice over the years in my attempt to explore and bridge diversity in media, technology, and the arts.

(2) I believe in the power of art as a means to defy expectations. I think art continually has to create new images for the time we live in. For the conditions and issues we deal with: existentially, politically, physically, and globally. Searching such images is what I am aiming for.

(3) My artistic work is often based on participation or embedded in local communities. I believe in an intriguing encounter between art producers and the public. Audiences can make us learn better and see things we would not have known yet., and vice versa. I understand both intelligence and creativity to be profoundly social.