| Thomas Charvériat | |
|---|---|
Thomas Charvériat, Shanghai 2009 |
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| Birth name | Thomas Harron Charvériat |
| Born | March 7, 1974 Paris |
| Nationality | France |
| Field | Electronic Art, Digital Art, New Media Art |
| Training | Tulane University in New Orleans, School of Visual Arts in New York, Columbia University in New York, The Audiovisual Institute (Universitat Pompeu Fabra) in Barcelona |
| Influenced by | Jon Kessler, Garry Hill, Sophie Calle, Ken Rinaldo |
| Influenced | Liu Dao, Wang Dongma, Zhang Deli, Rose Tang, Cai Duobao |
| Awards | The Joan Sovern Award for Excellence and Distinction in Sculpture, The Annette Kade Charitable Trust Fellowship |
Thomas Charvériat (born 1974) is an artist, curator and art director.
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Thomas Charvériat was born in Paris and attended the School of Visual Arts in New York, receiving his Bachelor of Fine Arts in photography in 1998, and pursued graduate coursework at Columbia University, receiving a Master of Fine Arts in sculpture in 2000. His teachers at Columbia University included Jon Kessler and Ronald Jones.
Later, he moved to Barcelona where he obtained a Master in Digital Arts with honors from the Audiovisual Institute (Pompeu Fabra university). Currently, Thomas Charvériat lives and works in Shanghai.
As an artist, Thomas is known for his work utilizing LED, video, GSM modules, SMS, light sensors, sound and humor that interact with the spectator, and putting together everyday objects to generate interactive and entertaining works.[1] A review in Eurasia One writes that "Style and wit are combined to create a playful, visual, auditory and kinesthetic experience."[2] He has exhibited in Paris, Rome, New York and Shanghai among other cities.[3]
The Return Policy Project was a year-long exploration into the consumer’s dependency on electronic products in 2000. The name came from the method of using return policies to put the products back into circulation once the electronics had been altered. The idea was to affect a person's life by affecting the objects which the particular life was based or built around.[4] The project is reminiscent of the work by the Barbie Liberation Organization, a group of artists that purchased talking Barbie dolls, opened them, altered them, and returned them to stores to be bought by an unsuspecting shopper, in order to play with the relationship between consumer and product.[5][6]
Charvériat is the founder of Liu Dao, an internationally recognized art collective including artists and engineers whose collaboration is dedicated to the development of a technological platform for the future benefit of the artist community.[7] The philosophy of the collectives is to create originality from the benefit of dialogue and collaboration among young artists, thereby rising above work that is solely commercial or overly derivative.[8] Through communication between the curator, art director and artists of Liu Dao, an exhibition subject is chosen and developed as inspiration for each artwork in a Liu Dao exhibition.[9]
His curatorial aim is to promote the use of technology and interactivity in art. Charvériat is the director of island6 Arts Center in Shanghai and Montcada5 in Barcelona, two not-for-profit ventures dedicated to promoting emerging artists.[10] Since 2004, his organizations have supported 250 artists and helped in the creation and realization of 1400 projects through a growing technical consultancy laboratory and a unique and intensive art production residency program.[11] Charvériat also encourages young artists to work together as a way of developing non-egocentric identities that help them stand out from the enormous number of artists in the world in order to break though competition barriers in the art profession.[12]
| Year | Title | Venue | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | "Absolute 0:00" [9] co-curated by Pete Bradt | island6 Arts Center | Shanghai, China |
| 2010 | "Psychic Apparatus" [10] | island6 Arts Center | Shanghai, China |
| 2010 | "Libido, Mortido" [11] co-curated by Zane Mellupe | island6 Arts Center | Shanghai, China |
| 2010 | "Fakirs" [12] co-curated by Zane Mellupe | island6 Arts Center | Shanghai, China |
| 2009 | "Placebo" [13] co-curated by Zane Mellupe | island6 Arts Center | Shanghai, China |
| 2009 | "Synesthesia" [14] | island6 Arts Center | Shanghai, China |
| 2008 | "Clouds of Crowds" [15] | island6 Arts Center | Shanghai, China |
| 2008 | "PlugIT" [16] | Blue Lotus Gallery [17] | Fotan, Hong-Kong |
| 2007 | "Bits, Bytes and Pixels" [18] | ifa gallery | Shanghai, China |
| 2006 | "Getting Along" [19] co-curated by David Estes | island6 Arts Center | Shanghai, China |
| 2006 | "Forward/Backward and Reloading" [20] | island6 Arts Center | Shanghai, China |
| Year | Title | Venue | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | "The Artist Died Yesterday" [21] | island6 Arts Center | Shanghai, China |
| 2008 | "Automata" [22] | island6 Arts Center | Shanghai, China |
| 2008 | "Urban Lust" [23] | island6 Arts Center | Shanghai, China |
| 2008 | "Made in China" [24] | island6 Arts Center | Shanghai, China |
| 2007 | "Stop/over Cities" [25] | island6 Arts Center | Shanghai, China |
| 2006 | "Invisible Layers, Electric Cities” [26] | island6 Arts Center | Shanghai, China |