Eduardo Kac is internationally recognized for his telepresence and bio art. A pioneer of telecommunications art in the pre-Web ’80s, Eduardo Kac (pronounced “Katz”) emerged in the early ’90s with his radical works combining telerobotics and living organisms. His visionary integration of robotics, biology and networking explores the fluidity of subject positions in the post-digital world. His work deals with issues that range from the mythopoetics of online experience (Uirapuru) to the cultural impact of biotechnology (Genesis); from the changing condition of memory in the digital age (Time Capsule) to distributed collective agency (Teleporting an Unknown State); from the problematic notion of the “exotic” (Rara Avis) to the creation of life and evolution (GFP Bunny).

At the dawn of the twenty-first century Kac opened a new direction for contemporary art with his “transgenic art”–first with a groundbreaking transgenic work entitled Genesis (1999), which included an “artist’s gene” he invented, and then with his fluorescent rabbit called Alba (2000).

From his first experiments online in 1985 to his current convergence of the digital and the biological, Kac has always investigated the philosophical and political dimensions of communication processes. Equally concerned with the aesthetic and the social aspects of verbal and non-verbal interaction, in his work Kac examines linguistic systems, dialogic exchanges, and interspecies communication. Kac’s pieces, which often link virtual and physical spaces, propose alternative ways of understanding the role of communication phenomena in creating shared realities.

Kac’s work has been exhibited internationally at venues such as Exit Art and Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York; Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris; Castello di Rivoli, Turin, Italy; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid; Zendai Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai; and Seoul Museum of Art, Korea. Kac’s work has been showcased in biennials such as Yokohama Triennial, Japan; Biennial of the End of the World, Ushuaia, Argentina; Gwangju Biennale, Korea; Bienal de Sao Paulo, Brazil; International Triennial of New Media Art, National Art Museum of China, Beijing; and Bienal de Habana, Cuba. His work is part of the permanent collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; the Museum of Modern Art in New York; Frac Occitanie—Regional collections of contemporary art, Les Abattoirs—Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Toulouse, France; the Museum of Modern Art of Valencia, Spain; the ZKM Museum, Karlsruhe, Germany; Art Center Nabi, Seoul; and the Museum of Contemporary Art of São Paulo, among others.

His work is included in the following collections: Tate Modern, London; Victoria & Albert Museum, London; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Frac Occitanie—Regional collections of contemporary art, Les Abattoirs—Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Toulouse, France; the Museum of Modern Art of Valencia, Spain; the ZKM Museum, Karlsruhe, Germany; Art Center Nabi, Seoul  and the Museum of Contemporary Art of São Paulo.

Eduardo Kac, born July 3rd, 1962, Rio de Janeiro

EDUCATION

BACHELOR OF FINE ARTS, 1985, School of Communications of the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro
MASTER OF FINE ARTS, 1990, SCHOOL OF THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO

SOLO EXHIBITIONS (SELECTION)
2021
Inner Telescope, Galerie Plateforme, Paris, in the context of Némo – International Biennial of Digital Arts, France
2020
Eduardo Kac, Galeria Leme, São Paulo
2019
Inner Telescope, Henrique Faria Fine Art, New York
GFP Bunny, Galerie Charlot, Paris
2018
Inner Telescope, Galerie Charlot, Tel Aviv
Poetry for Animals, Machines and Aliens: The Art of Eduardo Kac, Furtherfields, London
… and the bunny goes POP!, Horse Hospital, London
Inner Telescope, Sector 2337, Chicago
Inner Telescope, DAM Gallery Berlin
2017
Inner Telescope, Galerie Charlot, Paris
Telescópio Interior, Luciana Caravello Arte Contemporânea, Rio de Janeiro
2016
The Lagoglyph Series, Geary Contemporary, New York
Eduardo Kac: From the Pink Miniskirt to the Green Bunny, La Plaque Tournante, Berlin
Move 36, Victoria & Albert Museum (Members Room), London
Natural History of the Enigma, Black Box Gallery Showroom, Copenhagen

GROUP EXHIBITIONS (SELECTION)
2021
A reimagined presentation of the museum’s permanent collection, Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
Flower Strips: Between Dream and Fence—Gardens in the focus of art, Kunsthalle Erfurt, 4 July – 3 October, 2021
ISS Payload Gallery, Gallery AIR (Art.ITMO.Residency), St. Petersburg, 15 – 19 June, 2021
Holobiont: Life is Other, Magazin 4, Bregenz, April – June 2021
The Bridge, The Field and the Innovation Center, Leiden, 19. March – 31. December, 2021
2020
Netescopio, Ibero-American Museum of Contemporary Art (MEIAC), Badajoz
Order and Rhythm, Austin Desmond Fine Art, London
Moon Gallery: Close Cosmos, Old Observatory Leiden
Sense-Fiction, Le Tripostal, Lille
Galerie Charlot: 10 ans, Galerie Charlot, Paris
Le Cours des choses, Museum of Contemporary Art of Bordeaux (CAPC), France
Moon Gallery Garden, Glazen Huis, Amstelpark, Amsterdam
Message From Our Planet. Digital Art from the Thoma Foundation, Figge Art Museum, Davenport, Iowa
Hard Rhythms: Geometric Abstraction, Op Art & Technology, Austin/Desmond Fine Art, London – postponed
The Art Happens Here: Net Art’s Archival Poetics, Dunlop Art Gallery, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
The Art Happens Here: Net Art’s Archival Poetics, Vicki Myhren Gallery, University of Denver, Denver, CO
Art in Motion: 100 Masterpieces With and Through Media, CAFA Art Museum, Beijing
The Trajectory Series, Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum in Milwaukee, WI
Against, Again, Shiva Gallery, New York
ARCO, Madrid, with Baró Galeria
2019
Museu de Arte do Rio, Rio de Janeiro, O Rio dos Navegantes
The Art Happens Here: Net Art’s Archival Poetics, New Museum, New York
La fabrique du vivant, Pompidou Center, Paris
Faces, Es Baluard – Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Palma, Spain
Growing, Chronus Art Center, Shanghai
Poesis. Language Art, Kunsttempel Gallery, Kassel
Museum of Modern Art—MoMA, New York
Lieu d’Art et Action Contemporaine—LAAC, Dunkerque, France
Bienal de Curitiba
Wrong Biennale, Sesc Paulista, São Paulo, “Inflexão”
Fo Guang Shan Buddha Museum, Taiwan
2018
Gravité Zéro, Les Abattoirs, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Toulouse, France
Rome Media Art Festival, MAXXI Museum, Rom
Commission: Lagoogleglyph IV at Apollonia, Strasbourg, France
Paradoxo(s), of Contemporary Art, São Paulo
Art in Motion. 100 Masterpieces with and through Media, Karlsruhe
2017
Electronic Superhighway, Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (MAAT), Lisbon
Copyart: Experimental Printmaking 1970-1990, Standard Time Festival (Getty Foundation), Hoehn Family Galleries at the University of San Diego, San Diego
2016
Electronic Superhighway (2016-1966), Whitechapel Gallery, London
Net Art Anthology, Rhizome für das New Museum, New York
Vision, Palais de Tokyo, Paris
Snacks, Power Station of Art Shanghai, China
Shadow and Space, Thoma Foundation, Chicago
Beijing Media Art Biennial, Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing
Poner el cuerpo, Henrique Faria Gallery, Buenos Aires
Say It with Flowers: Flowers and Artificial Nature since the 1960s, Museum Schloss Moyland Foundation, Bedburg-Hau
Möglichkeit Mensch, Zeppelin Museum, Friedrichshafen

AWARDS
2008
Golden Nica award at Ars Electronica for his project Natural History of the Enigma
2002
Creative Capital Award in the discipline of Emerging Fields
1999
Inter Communication Center (Tokyo) Biennial Award
1998
Leonardo Award for Excellence from ISAST

INNER TELESCOPE, DAM Berlin, 10 November 2018 – 16 December 2018

SUMMER SPLASH 2, DAM Berlin,  18 June – 27 July 2013

NATURAL HISTORY OF THE ENIGMA, Edonia, DAM Berlin, 29 May 2010 – 17 July 2010