Tim Portlock

Tim Portlock is a professor of Art and the Environment at the University of Wisconsin in America. His current creative work combines special effects software and the visual conventions of 19th-century American painting to creatively simulate real-world American cityscapes.

In recent years, his large format print images have depicted imagined landscapes populated with the empty buildings that surround his home in Philadelphia as well as developments in post-boom and bust Las Vegas. Other work utilizes large outdoor video projections onto buildings, creating temporary public art that incorporates new media and the visual language of murals while engaging with architecture and city space.

Exhibitions include Ruffneck Constructivists at the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania, curated by Kara Walker and Anthony Elms; the 2014 Visiting Curator Exhibition at The Center for Emerging Visual Artists, curated by Cecilia Alemani, the Donald R. Mullen, Jr. Curator and director of High Line Art; and SPRING/BREAK Art Show, curated by Complex Magazine art critics Leigh Silver and Ellie Clark. Portlock also exhibited at PULSE New York, represented by the West Collection (2013); Broadstone Studios in Dublin as part of Photo Ireland (2012); the Tate Modern as a member of the artist collective Vox Populi (2011); Christie’s London, represented by Philagrafika (2012); the International Guerrilla Video Festival in Dublin (2009); and This is Not a Gateway, a group exhibition of outdoor video projections in London (2009). Prior to this period, Portlock exhibited at the 404 Festival for digital art in Argentina and Italy, ISEA Japan, and Ars Electronica in Austria, where his work is part of the permanent collection. Portlock has been an artist in residence at Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand), 18th Street Arts Center (Santa Monica), and the Abrons Arts Center (New York)