Muriel Magenta née Zimmerman is an American visual artist working in

new media New media describes communication technologies that enable or enhance interaction between users as well as interaction between users and content. In the middle of the 1990s, the phrase "new media" became widely used as part of a sales pitch for ...

genres of computer art, installation, multimedia performance as well as video and sculpture. Magenta is Professor of Art at

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...

Education

Magenta received a BA from

Queens College Queens College (QC) is a public college in the Queens borough of New York City. It is part of the City University of New York system. Its 80-acre campus is primarily located in Flushing, Queens. It has a student body representing more than 170 ...

, in New York City, an MA from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD, and an MFA and PhD from Arizona State University.

Work

Magenta's installations involve the interface between electronic media and the audience, creating visual/perceptual experiences within actual spaces, transforming them into hybrids between virtual environments and lived space. Magenta's video art in the 1980s used controversial techniques such as leaving all crew members uncredited and using a

pastiche A pastiche is a work of visual art, literature, theatre, music, or architecture that imitates the style or character of the work of one or more other artists. Unlike parody, pastiche pays homage to the work it imitates, rather than mocking it ...

style utilizing entire segments from the work of peers. Coincidentally, this style was popularized more prominently in the film industry by

Quentin Tarantino Quentin Jerome Tarantino (; born March 27, 1963) is an American film director, writer, producer, and actor. His films are characterized by stylized violence, extended dialogue, profanity, Black comedy, dark humor, Nonlinear narrative, non-lin ...

in the 1990s who instead was candid about his influences from different genres. Magenta has had solo exhibitions at the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

Kansas City Art Institute The Kansas City Art Institute (KCAI) is a private art school in Kansas City, Missouri. The college was founded in 1885 and is an accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design and Higher Learning Commission. It has approxi ...

, LACE:

Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions Located in Hollywood, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE) is a nonprofit exhibition space and archive of the visual arts for the city of Los Angeles, California, United States, currently under the leadership of Sarah Russin. History In t ...

, Scottsdale Center for the Arts, among others. Her work has been exhibited in group exhibitions 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 (1875–1942), ...

, Brussels International Film Festival, European Media Festival,

Brooklyn Film Festival The Brooklyn Film Festival (BFF), prior to 2011 called the Brooklyn International Film Festival (BiFF) is an independent film festival held every June in Brooklyn, New York. Started by Marco Ursino, Susan Mackell, Abe Schrager, and Mario Pegoraro ...

SIGGRAPH SIGGRAPH (Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques) is an annual conference on computer graphics (CG) organized by the ACM SIGGRAPH, starting in 1974. The main conference is held in North America; SIGGRAPH Asia ...

among others. Magenta served as the National President of the Women's Caucus for Art, and has been involved in the women's art movement for decades in leadership positions. She has curated exhibitions, such as ''Push Comes to Shove: Women and Power'', in collaboration with the

Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA) in the state of Arizona is a museum in the Old Town district of downtown Scottsdale, Arizona. The museum is dedicated to exhibiting modern works of art, design and architecture. The Museum has four ...

and

Videography

''Bride'' (Tempe, Arizona: Muriel Magenta, 2000?). ''Club M'' (Tempe, Arizona: Muriel Magenta, 2009?). ''Coiffure Carnival Trilogy'' (Tempe, Ariz.: Muriel Magenta, 2000?). Includes: Coiffure Carnival: A Permanent Wave of Hair—Salon Doo—In Defense of a Hairdo. ''The World's Women On-line!: Videowall.'' 1995 ''Times Square: 3D Animation'' (Arizona: Magenta Productions, 2002). ''Token City'' (Tempe, Ariz.: Institute for Studies in the Arts, Arizona State University, 1997). ''28 Women: A Chance for Independence: Documentary'' (Tempe, AZ: M. Magenta, 2005). ''Virtual Justice'' (Ariz.: Magenta Productions, 1993).

Exhibitions

Muriel Magenta Coiffure Carnival, Video/Sculpture: Scottsdale Center for the Arts, Scottsdale, Arizona, March 29-May 30, 1990. Curated by Robert E. Knight; exhibition catalog essays by J. Gray Sweeney.

Awards

In 2002

Women's Caucus for Art The Women's Caucus for Art (WCA), founded in 1972, is a non-profit organization based in New York City, which supports women artists, art historians, students, educators, and museum professionals. The WCA holds exhibitions and conferences to promo ...

awarded her with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Magenta, Muriel American women artists Feminist artists American video artists Arizona State University alumni Arizona State University faculty Queens College, City University of New York alumni Johns Hopkins University alumni Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Women digital artists American women academics 21st-century American women