Paul Hertz

Paul Hertz is an independent artist, printmaker, and curator who works with algorithmic processes. From 1971 to 1983, he lived and worked in Spain, where he collaborated with actors and musicians. He earned a BA in Fine Arts from Brown University (1971) and an MFA in Time Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1985), where he was a Fellow of the Center for Advanced Studies in Art and Technology. He taught courses in the theory, practice, and art history of new media at Northwestern University (1995–2004) and at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2011–2018).

Hertz’s curatorial work includes Second Nature (1999) for the City of Chicago’s Project Millennium, all.go.rhythm (2015) and glitChicago (2014), all at the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art in Chicago, and Imaging by Numbers (2008) at the Mary and Leigh Block Museum, Northwestern University. La Finca/The Homestead (1995), one of the earliest art exhibitions on the WWW, with works by seven artists and critics, was exhibited at Northwestern University and the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Valencia, Spain.

Hertz has exhibited his archival pigment prints and interactive installations at numerous international media festivals, conferences, and symposia. His large scale glass mural “A Chance Encounter of Measure and Continuity” (2016) is featured in the headquarters of the National Science Foundation, Alexandria, Virginia. Hertz continues to create collaborative intermedia works. The virtual reality installation, “Fools Paradise,” created in collaboration with composer Stephen Dembski, toured international venues (2017–2020). "Campos | Temporales," a video animation for recorded and live musical performance, was created in collaboration with composer Christopher Walczak in 2022. Hertz lives and works in #Chicago.

Paul Hertz

Education

MFA in Time Arts, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 1986. Fellow of the Center for Advanced
Studies in Art and Technology, 1985.
BA in Fine Arts, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, 1971. Studies in music and fine arts.

Selected One-Person and Ensemble Shows

“Campos / Temporales,” intermedia composition for animation and music in collaboration with composer Christopher Walczak, 150 Media Stream, Chicago, 2022. Music recorded at Experimental Sound Studio.
“Fools Paradise II,” new version of 2004 VR work, for VR headset. Published by the Digital Museum of Digital Art, http://dimoda.art/, 2018. Exhibited in SIGGRAPH Asia, Bangkok; Arles, France; New York City; MCA, Chicago; Lima, Peru; Ciudad de México; Outside the Box New Music Festival, Carbondale, Illinois; Toronto New Wave Festival, and other international venues. Music by Stephen Dembski, masks by Mark Klink.
“Blue Noise, Trees and Boids,” What It Is, May 2012, Chicago. Interactive video and digital prints.
“Works On Paper,” Chicago City Arts Gallery, Sept. 2007, Chicago.
”Fools Paradise,” Northwestern University, May 2004. Virtual reality performance for CAVE software, music by Stephen Dembski. VR architecture and music were both derived from IgnoTheory tiling patterns.
“Pond II,” Block Museum, Northwestern University, June 2001, interactive installation.
“Deadpan, or, The Holy Toast,” Montréal, Canada, 1995; New London, Connecticut, 1997; Valencia, Spain,
1996; Artemisia Gallery, Chicago, 1996. Suite of 17 digital prints.
“Domain,” installation and music for four instruments and percussion derived from IgnoTheory patterns, Universitat Nova, Barcelona, Spain, 1983. https://paulhertz.net/projects/Domain
“Travesias,” Paintings derived from tiling pattern card game and performances as Ignotus the Mage, dysfunctional fortuneteller, with a participatory installation “Eat Your Location in Space” in collaboration with theater group TET, Palau Maricel, Sitges, Spain, 1982.
“Moebius Paths,” performance by theater group TET with slides and music derived from IgnoTheory tiling patterns, XVIII International Theater Festival, Sitges, Spain, 1980.

Public Art

“A Chance Encounter of Measure and Continuity,” glass mural 11.5 x 64 feet created from an algorithmically generated design, National Science Foundation, Alexandria, Virginia, 2016.

Selected Group Shows

/’fu:bar/ Glitch Art Festival, Zagreb, Croatia, 2022, 2021, 2019, 2015
Terrain Biennial, 2019, Evanston, Illinois. Participatory wall-drawing “Arcos en Arbol.”
The Wrong (Again), 2017, 2015, 2013. International curated online exhibition of digital media and net art.
Terrain Biennial, 2017, Oak Park, Illinois. Performance as Ignotus the Mage.
Body Electric, Crossman Gallery, U. of Wisconsin, Whitewater, WI, 2016. Prints and interactive installation.
bitbash, indie game and glitch art show, Chicago, August 2016
all.go.rhythm (curator and artist), Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, Chicago, Fall 2015.
Tele-novela, video exhibition at Acre-TV. http://www.acretv.org/hippie-atom-test-paul-hertz/
Porn to Pizza: Domestic Clichés, DAM Gallery, Berlin, Germany, September 2015
glitChicago, Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, Chicago, August–September 2014.
Winter Blues, Jean Albano Gallery, Chicago, January 10–February 28, 2014.
Technoromanticism, Jean Albano Gallery, Chicago, September 6–October 19, 2013.
Mon3y.us, curated thematic online exhibition, 2013.
Computational Aesthetics, Vancouver, Canada, August 2011.
Algorists 2009, Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, UC Santa Barbara, 2009-2010.
Siggraph 2006, Boston, MA., August 2006. Invited artist, interactive installation “Ignotus the Mage.”
International Computer Music Conference, Barcelona, Spain., 2005, "Orai/Kalos II."
Siggraph 2004, Los Angeles, CA, August 2004, "Orai/Kalos II."
ISEA2002, Nagoya, Japan, October 2002, “Orai/Kalos,” interactive multimedia installation.
Complexity, Samuel Dorsky Museum, New Paltz, NY, 2002. Gallery of Federal Reserve, Washington, DC, 2003.
Art f(x), Chicago Cultural Center/ISEA97, Chicago, Fall 1997: “Pond,” interactive multimedia installation.
Joan Miro International Drawing Competition, Miro Foundation, Barcelona, Spain, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1983.

Curatorial

all.go.rhythm, group show of Roman Verostko, Jean-Pierre Hébert, Colette Bangert, and Paul Hertz, Fall 2015, Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, Chicago.
glitChicago, Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, Chicago, August-September 2014. International glitch art.
Imaging by Numbers: A Historical View of the Computer Print, Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, co-curator and symposium chair, 2008. The Block’s digital print collection began with this show.
Second Nature, Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, Chicago, 1999, curator. For Chicago’s millennium celebration.
La Finca/The Homestead, online art and essays on the colonization of cyberspace, by seven artists and critics. Chicago and Valencia, Spain, 1996.

Selected Publications

“IgnoTheory: A Compositional System for Intermedia Art,” chapter in Complex Symmetries, György Darvas,Editor. Published by Birkhäuser, Springer Nature Switzerland AG, 2021.

Selected Publications on Artistic Oeuvre

“Wrong Ways Prevail,” interview by Randall Packer: https://www.furtherfield.org/wrong-ways-prevail-a-conversation-with-nick-briz-paul-hertz-and-jon-satrom/, 2014.
Information Arts, Stephen Wilson, MIT Press/Leonardo Book, May 2002, documentation of “The Homestead.”
“Abandoned Beauty,” review of “Deadpan” by Fred Camper, Chicago Reader, December 20, 1996.