Camille Utterback

Photo: Brett Bowman

American, b. 1970

Lives and works in San Francisco, CA

Camille Utterback is an internationally acclaimed artist whose interactive installations and reactive sculptures engage participants in a dynamic process of kinesthetic discovery and play. Utterback’s work explores the aesthetic and experiential possibilities of linking computational systems to human movement and gesture in layered and often humorous ways. Her work focuses attention on the continued relevance and richness of the body in our increasingly mediated world.

Utterback has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including a Media Arts Grant from Creative Work Fund (2015); MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (2009); a Transmediale International Media Art Festival Award (2005); and a Rockefeller Foundation New Media Fellowship (2002). She has realized commissions for the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; San Jose International Airport, CA; Pittsburgh Children’s Museum, PA; American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY; and Stanford University, CA.

Her work has been exhibited at galleries, museums, and festivals internationally, including the Ars Electronica Center, Linz, Austria (2000); Seoul Metropolitan Museum of Art, Korea (2000); Netherlands Institute for Media Art, Amsterdam (2000, 2002, 2008); Taipei Museum of Contemporary Art, Taiwan (2001); Center for Contemporary Art, Kiev, Ukraine (2001); New Museum, New York, NY (2003); San Jose Museum of Art (2005); Skive Kunstmuseum, Denmark (2009); Frist Center for Visual Arts, Nashville, TN (2013); Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C. (2015); and Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco, CA (2015). Utterback’s work is in private and public collections including the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; Hewlett Packard, Palo Alto, CA; Itaú Cultural Institute, Sáo Paolo, Brazil; and La Caixa Foundation Barcelona, Spain.

Artist CV (PDF)
Works
- Camille Utterback
  Precarious, 2018
  Interactive installation (custom software, computer, depth-camera, projection, lighting)
  Dimensions variable - minimum projection and
  interactive floor area sizes 7' x 11' each
  
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- Camille Utterback
  Untitled 6 from the External Measures Series, 2005
  Interactive installation (custom software, video camera, computer, projector, lighting)
  7.5’ x 10’ projection and corresponding interaction area
  
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- Camille Utterback
  Floating World, 2011
  Generative animation (custom software, computer, HD monitors)
  6 monitors, overall: 12.5 x 128 inches
  
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- Camille Utterback
  Nodules, 2013
  Generative animation with custom glass (custom software, computer, flat screen display, frame)
  12.5 x 20 x 5.5 inches
  
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- Camille Utterback
  River, 2013
  Generative animation with custom glass (custom software, computer, flat screen display, frame)
  20 x 12.5 x 5.5 inches
  
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Exhibitions
- Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian and Camille Utterback:
  Kaleidoscope Eyes
  April 4 - June 29, 2019
  Haines Gallery is proud to present Kaleidoscope Eyes, an exhibition bringing together the glittering mirrored mosaics of Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian and the interactive digital installations of Camille Utterback , creating...
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- Poetics of Construction
  January 18 - February 23, 2013
  Our intervention with the world is invariably shaped by the composed form. Even in the seemingly limitless digital society with which we are obliged to interact, our negotiations with physical...
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News
- News
  Camille Utterback
  New Commission
  Stanford University Announces Camille Utterback's New Commission For Data Science and Computation Complex in Stanford, CA
  Digital and interactive artist Camille Utterback has been commissioned by Stanford University to create a permanent installation on their new Data Science and Computation Complex. Stanford's committee determined that Utterback’s...
Press
Robin Wander, "Artists Alia Farid and Camille Utterback to create new campus artworks," Stanford Report, May 16, 2024

Brandy McDonnell, “Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center looks to future as sun sets on inaugural exhibit in its new home,” The Oklahoman, December 25, 2020

Brandy McDonnell, “Seeing the light: Oklahoma Contemporary showcases acclaimed artists with new home’s first exhibit, ‘Bright Golden Haze,’” The Oklahoman, March 12, 2020

James Russell, “See the New and Improved Amon Carter Museum of American Art,” D Magazine, September 17, 2019

Jonathan Curiel, “EyeJacking Culture, at Two Stunning New Exhibits,” SF Weekly, May 2, 2019

Mikko Lautamo, “Monir Farmanfarmaian & Camille Utterback @ Haines,” Squarecylinder.com, May 10, 2019

Edward Rothstein, “‘Black Out: Silhouettes Then and Now’ Review: Tracing the Shadows of Past and Present,” The Wall Street Journal, June 13, 2018

Grace Parazzoli, “Profiles in chiaroscuro: ‘Black Out: Silhouettes Then and Now,’” Pasatiempo, October 5, 2018

Christina Waters, "Camille Utterback’s Visual Homage to the San Lorenzo River," Good Times, January 24, 2017

Katie Nodjimbadem, "This Interactive Installation Rains a Poem Down on Viewers," Smithsonian, September 23, 2015

Rachel Howard, "Mark Foehringer Dance Project: Painting Pictures with Movement," SF Gate, September 10, 2014

Robin Wander, "A Molecular Physics Experience Through Movement at Stanford," Stanford News, September 5, 2014

Helen Lessick, "Innovation in Administration at San José, California's Norman Y. Mineta Airport," Public Art Review, Spring/Summer issue, 2011

Reyhan Harmanci, "For Digital Artists, Apps Provide New Palette," The New York Times, August 19, 2010

Reena Jana, "The Ripple Effect," Wired Magazine, February 1, 2004