Jim Campbell (born 1956 in Chicago,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

) is a contemporary San Francisco based artist who is known for his LED light works. Campbell began his artistic career in film making but switched to electronic sculpture in 1990 and started making his iconic LED matrix works in 2000. His current work combines film, sound, and LED light installations.

Early life and career

Born in Chicago in 1956, Jim Campbell moved to San Francisco after earning a B.S. degree from the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

in electrical engineering and mathematics in 1978. In the mid 1980s, Campbell shifted from filmmaking to interactive video installations, establishing LEDs as his primary medium in 2000. A trailblazer in computer technology as art form, Campbell explores the distinctions of human "knowledge" and mathematical "data" through his LED grids of pixilated representations. Campbell's work has been exhibited at the

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–194 ...

, the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

, and other notable museums.

Public collections

Campbell's work is part of numerous public collections such as the

, New York;

The Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of th ...

, New York; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC;

The Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), ...

, New York; the

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art, and wa ...

. In the fall of 2010, Campbell's work, "Scattered Light" was installed in the Madison Square Park Conservancy in Manhattan making it the largest and most extensive public art piece of his to date. Hundreds of hovering tiny lights made up a large-scale, three-dimensional public installation. His installation, "Day for Night", at the top of

Salesforce Tower Salesforce Tower, formerly known as Transbay Tower, is a 61-story skyscraper at 415 Mission Street, between First and Fremont Street, in the South of Market district of downtown San Francisco. Its main tenant is Salesforce, a cloud-based so ...

debuted 21 May 2018, making it the tallest artwork on earth.

Awards and commissions

* 2010–2017: Werner Klotz & Jim Campbell Reflecting Ribbon, The New San Francisco Central Subway, Union Square Market Station * 2014: ''Eternal Recurrence'', for ''Fleeting Light'' 4th Large Scale Interactive Media Art Installation, ICC Tower (International Commercial Center), Hong Kong. * 2010–2013: San Diego County Regional Airport Authority Installation * 2010–2011:

Madison Square Park Conservancy Madison Square is a public square formed by the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Broadway at 23rd Street in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The square was named for Founding Father James Madison, fourth President of the United States ...

, "Scattered Light", New York * 2003–2004: Guggenheim Fellowship (This award is given to those who show "exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts.") * 2002–2003: Langlois Foundation Grant, Montreal * 1999–2000: Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship Award in Multimedia * 1999–2001: Eureka Fellowship Award, Fleishhacker Foundation * 1996: SECA Electronic Media Award,

Publications

# Baker, Kenneth. "Electronics Artist Campbell Turns His Eye Toward Mass Protests, Echoing Futurists." San Francisco Chronicle. February 26, 2005, pp. E1, 10. # Baker, Kenneth. "‘Home Movies’ Not Like the Ones Your Dad Made." San Francisco Chronicle. April 14, 2007, sec. E, p. 1. # Vogel, Carol. "Inside Art: Madison Park, All Aglow", The New York Times. July 29, 2010. # Zuckerman-Jacobsen, Heidi. "Jim Campbell / MATRIX 208 Memory Array." Berkeley Art Museum, 2003

References

External links

Jim Campbell Homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Campbell, Jim Living people 1956 births American installation artists Artists from the San Francisco Bay Area New media artists MIT School of Engineering alumni Artists from Chicago