Cristin Tierney Gallery is pleased to present a selection of Peter Campus’ single-channel artworks in Booth S-10 at the 2015 edition of Art Basel Miami Beach. Between 1971 and 1976 Campus created nine videos, including the now iconic 1973 Three Transitions. Most of these works were produced at WGBH-TV through their “New Television Workshop” fellowship program, and they exemplify avant-garde artistic practices of the era.

Open from December 3rd through the 6th, the fair represents an important milestone for both the artist and the gallery. This will be the first time in history that all nine of the videos are shown together as a complete group. In addition, the gallery is celebrating its fifth anniversary in 2015. On this special occasion, Cristin Tierney is presenting a solo booth with Peter Campus, the artist who was her first exhibition when she opened the gallery in 2010.

Campus’ interest in cognitive psychology, identity construction, and the existential questions of human existence is well reflected in the early videos. Most of the works are formal in their approach, focused on issues such as perspective, color, and the figure/ground relationship. Each of the works explores the connection between the subject and the camera, and thus the nature of representation. Heavily emphasized is the artifice inherent in moving images, and the ability of the artist to transform recorded realities: a hand disappears slowly, sinking into a black gelatin-like substance; an image of a face on what appears to be a sheet of paper is set aflame and burns until it disappears; a set of small rectangular mirrors is dropped one by one, reflecting sections of the performer’s face, resulting in an increasingly fragmentary image.

The significance of these early works is twofold. First, Campus’ exploration of form pushed the boundaries of this new medium, and his work has influenced generations of artists ever since. Second, the integration of form and content in these works is remarkable. In these videos, Campus uses literal explorations of the actual world to illuminate our struggles with an imagined one. As time unfolds and each piece progresses, it gradually becomes apparent that the physical spaces recorded by the video camera are metaphors for our psychological ones.

Peter Campus is widely considered a seminal figure in the history of video and new media art. One of the very first to pick up a video camera and create art, Campus' works are part of numerous collections including The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; Tate Modern, London; Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Centro Cultural de Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City; San Francisco Museum of American Art, San Francisco; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Kunsthalle Bremen, Bremen; Fondation Cartier; Fondation Berne; and the Kramlich Collection.

Excerpts of the nine single-channel works and selected texts are available online in advance of the fair. Watch videos, read press and critical essays, and view more information at www.petercampusvideos.com.

Visit Cristin Tierney Gallery at Booth S-10!