About
Stephen Cartwright is an artist, maker, traveler, and self-tracker. His work exists at the confluence of science and art, where hard data intersects with the intangible complexities of human experience. Since 1999 he has recorded his exact latitude, longitude and elevation every hour of every day. Cartwright uses his location information, other personally recorded data, and information gleaned from scientific, academic, and international organizations to design his work. He fabricates the work with a blend of advanced materials and machinery and traditional techniques. His data-based sculptures create alternative maps, contain floating geometric forms that allude to landscapes, and change perspectives. Stephen Cartwright collects data from everywhere, but maintains a studio in Napa, California.
Timeline Atlas, is a mapping project by Cartwright that allows users to input a history of their location data (personal, family, ancestral) into an online collective map that dynamically illustrates how people physically move through life compared to others. The public can explore the map in a dynamic online visualization and create custom physical 2D and 3D maps.
Represented by Desta Gallery, Mill Valley CA
NEWS
Work shown by Desta Gallery at Playground Global, Palo Alto CA Sep-Dec 2023
Work shown by Desta Gallery at Art Market Art Fair, San Francisco CA - Apr 20-23, 2023
Group Exhibition - “True North” di Rosa Center for Cont. Art, Napa CA - Dec 16, 2022 - Jan 15, 2023
Solo and Two-Person Exhibitions (solo show except where noted)
2021 Making Connections Desta Gallery, Mill Valley, Ca. (three-person)
2018 Walking in the Rain Harper College Art Gallery, Palatine, Il.
2017 Surface Elements Rockford University Art Gallery, Rockford, Il.
Unseen: Visualizing Ecological Systems Schneider Hall Gallery, Hite Art Institute, University of Louisville, KY (two-person show with Shohei Katayama)
2016 Human Trajectory Fermilab Art Gallery, Fermilab National Accelerator Laboratory, Batavia. Il.
2014 Clearing Cressman Center for Visual Arts, University of Louisville, KY (two-person with Che Rhodes)
2013 Moraine McLean County Arts Center, Bloomington, Il.
Light Trajectory Evanston Art Center, Evanston, Il.
Data Sculpture Exhibition in conjunction with the Strata 2013 Conference, Santa Clara, Ca.
2012 Kinetic Mesh Exhibition at the Singularity Summit, San Francisco, Ca.
Degree Luminary Arts Center, St. Louis, Mo. (two-person show with Andrew James)
2010 Stephen Cartwright: Topographies Tarble Art Center, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, Il.
Topographies (Topologic Genertor) Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, Oh.
2009 Phase TransitionButler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Oh.
2007 Perigee Old Dominion University Gallery, Norfolk, Va.
2001 Fleisher Challenge Fleisher Art Memorial, Philadelphia, Pa.
Selected Group Exhibitions
2023 Art Market Art Fair, shown by Desta Gallery, San Francisco, Ca.
2022 True North di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art, Napa, Ca.
2019 Light, Pizzuti Collection of the Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Oh.
Data: BIG/-driven/Visualized… Northern Illinois University Art Museum, DeKalb, Il.
Peripheral Technology, Ann Arbor Art Center, Ann Arbor, Mi.
2017 Points of Departure; Meditations on Mapping, Mercer Gallery, Monroe College, and Art and Music Gallery, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY
Crooked Data: (Mis)Information in Contemporary Art, University of Richmond Museum, Va.
2015 The Art of Quantified Self, Exhibition in conjunction with the QS2015 Conference, San Francisco, Ca.
traveling to the QSEU15 European Conference, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Lifelogging, Science Gallery, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland.
2014 Drowning in a Sea of Information, Work Gallery, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mi.
Materialized, Robert and Elaine Stein Galleries, Wright State University, Dayton, Oh. traveling to
Fountain Gallery, Purdue University, Lafayette, In.
Location, in conjunction with the International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA2014), Dubai, UAE.
Lifeloggers: Chronicling the Everyday, Perlman Teaching Museum at Carleton College, Northfield, Mn.
traveling to Elmhurst Art Museum, Elmhurst, Il.
2013 Chasing Horizons Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum, Milwaukee, Wi.
2012 Quantified Self 2012, Exhibition in conjunction with the QS2012 conference, Stanford, Ca.
Machine Wilderness Albuquerque Museum of Art and History, Albuquerque, NM
Machinations: Kinetic Sculpture in the Age of Open Source Glass Curtain Gallery, Columbia College of Art, Chicago, Il.
21st Evanston and Vicinity Biennial Evanston Art Center, Evanston, Il.
2011 Specific Environments: Landscape as Metaphor Lincoln Center Art Gallery, Fort Collins, Co.
Data In, Data Out Walsh Gallery, Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ.
Energy Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Ana, Ca.
Nomadic Fantasia Indigo Gallery, Champaign, Il.
2010 The Nameless Hour: Places of Reverie, Paths of Reflection, Anderson Gallery, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond Va.
Constructed Territory Stein Galleries, Wright State University, Dayton, Oh.
Data Mining-Artist Constructs Leviton A+D Gallery, Columbia College, Chicago, Il.
RAPID 2010 Society of Manufacturing Engineers Conference, Anaheim, Ca.
INHABIT SoFA Gallery, Indiana University, Bloomington, In.
2009 Contemporary Sculpture University Gallery, Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, Mi.
2008 Terra Firma Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, Oh.
Trajectories East Gallery, Visual Arts Center, California State Univ., Fullerton, Ca.
2003-04NEW MATH: Contemporary Art and the Mathematical Instinct Tweed Museum of Art, Univ. of
Minnesota Duluth (Traveled to: Stedman Gallery, Rutgers University, Camden NJ; University Museums, Univ. of Richmond, Richmond, Va.)
2002 Greater Philadelphia Moore College of Art and Design, Philadelphia, Pa.
2001 Works on Paper Arcadia University Art Gallery, Glenside, Pa.
Map Manipulations Abington Arts Center, Jenkintown, Pa.
Pete and Repeat D.U.M.B.O. Arts Center, Brooklyn, NY
1998 Journey White Columns Gallery, New York, NY
Education
1996 - 1998 MFA Sculpture, Tyler School of Art, Temple University
1994 - 1996 BA Studio Art, University of California, Davis
Academic Appointments
2014 – 2019 Associate Professor, School of Art + Design, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Associate Director, 2016-2018; Chair of Studio Art 2015-2016)
2008 – 2014 Assistant Professor, School of Art + Design, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
2005 – 2008 Visiting Assistant Professor, Sculpture, Virginia Commonwealth Univ., Richmond, Va.