Marjan Moghaddam is an award-winning, pioneering, digital artist and animator, who works primarily
with 3d Computer Graphics, motion capture of performance, and digital media for animation, net art, print,
sculpture, installation, AR and VR. Her work has been exhibited extensively at international galleries, museums
and festivals, in addition to curated exhibits at the Armory Show in NYC and Art Basel Miami. Ms.
Moghaddam’s work has also been an official selection of the prestigious Siggraph Computer Animation Festival
and art gallery (the world’s top CG festival) a total of 4 times, including the Siggraph CG03, 30 Years of
Computer Art Gallery and international, travelling exhibition.
Ms. Moghaddam is a recipient of numerous grants for her innovative and cutting edge art, such as
Rockefeller Fund, NY Department of Cultural Affairs, Brooklyn Arts Council, and the Experimental Television
Fund. Marjan was also the featured artist for the launch of DOTCOM Gallery and International Forum for the
Digital Arts in 1996, the first NYC, internet based digital art gallery, sponsored by Prodigy Inc. with GIF
animations of her 3d avatar. Her pioneering virtual reality installation, the Box, was grabbed from Soho galleries
for Internet pioneer Josh Harris’ offices at Jupiter Communications in the 1990s. Ms. Moghaddam’s animations
have also been the official selection of numerous international film and video festivals throughout the years, and
her digital art is privately held in various private and institutional collections.
Hailed as a “trailblazer in the world of digital art” by the Herald Tribune, and “the first lady of Animated
Painting” by the Examiner, most recently she was shortlisted for the 2017 International Digital Sculpture prize
for her #Arthacked #Digitalbodies series on Instagram, and this last winter she showed an Augmented Reality
App as part of the exhibition of the winners at the Ulm museum in Germany. Another one of her signature
#digitalbodies was also exhibited in the Post Identity Pavilion of The New Wrong Digital Art Biennial in 2017.
Ms. Moghaddam’s #arthack #digitalbodies, a conceptual Instagram-based art collection from the last two
years, has additionally gone viral on the internet, with her “Baissier at Mary Boone in Waxish and Glassish”
garnering over 2 million views on Art Gates Instagram, 1.7 million views on the Nowness Facebook post, and
millions of additional views on top art channels. Additionally her recent #Arthack from Art Basel Miami has
already accrued over 2 million views on her public page on facebook & over 1.4 million views on the Arts in
Paris post of it. Marjan created the #arthacks as a way of radicalizing curation, while extending and
democratizing the virtual exhibition space on the internet, as a type of digital street art of the internet, with a
critical discourse as a form of artistic disruption, instigation and intervention. “To hack is merely transgressive,
to do so with a critical dialog is transformational”, she explains.
Most recently Ms. Moghaddam created and exhibited two Augmented Reality, chronometric sculptures at
the Smithsonian and the National Cathedral in Washington DC, commissioned by Artechouse, and Halcyon
Arts. She currently has multiple AR and animation projects on exhibit at #EnamoredArmor at Rowan University
art gallery, as part of an exhibition of 3 women artists. She is currently represented by Noow Digital art
collection platform, and is also a tenured and Full Professor of Computer Graphics & Animation at the Brooklyn
campus of LIU.
EXHIBITIONS
Solo Shows:
9/’15 Main Line Art Center, #ModernUtopias, and Lead Featured Artist for the Panorama
Imaging in the 21 st Century Festival, Philadelphia, Pa.
9/14 SONICA, solo show, at The Yard,curated by IFAC, LES, NY
5/13- “Of Revolutions”, curated by Rex Bruce of LACDA and Holly Harrison of LACMA, Los
Angeles Center For Digital Art. Downtown LA Artwalk.
12/95 Chaoscape Mary Anthony Galleries, Soho, NY
’95 DOTCOM Gallery and International Forum for the Digital Arts, featured artist for the
launch, first Internet Gallery.
’95 Mary Anthony Galleries, Project Space, Soho, NY.
Selected Group Exhibitions:
2018 “Autonomous” , Chronometric Sculpture, Augmented Reality Exhibition at the
Smithsonian Museum Arts and Industries Building, Washington DC, #WeThePeople Arts
Festival.
“We The People”, Chronometric Sculpture, Augmented Reality Exhibition at the
National Cathedral, Washington DC, #WeThePeople Arts Festival
Sculpture: Into the Unknown, Ulm Museum, Germany (Augmented Reality App),
exhibition of the winners of the International Digital Sculpture Prize
Enamored Armored, Rowan University Art Gallery, New Jersey.
“Baisser at Mary Boone in Glassish and Waxish”, #Arthack on Instagram. (Video went
viral with millions of views on top Art channels like Nowness Facebook (1.7 Million views),
and Art Gates on Instagram (over 2 million views).
"All that Glitters is not Gold, NYC Armory Show 2018", #Arthack on Instagram
“GlitchSculpted diane-ii-louvre-museum-low-definition.stl 3dscan, for #Fake Easter/Ishtar
Facebook Meme Day, after” Instagram Art. (regrammed widely on Artchannels)
"Notes from the future to Walter Benjamin: The Money Kills the Aura Not Reproduction"
Frieze, NY #Arthack
“LIAF CIPE at Art Basel, Basel 2018”. Art Basel, Basel, #Arthack on Instagram.
“Glitching Antinous”, Instagram Art.
"Kavanaugh Haunted my Frieze London #Arthack" #arthack on Instagram
“GlitchGoddess at Art Basel Miami with Portrait of Picasso” #arthack on Instagram, went
viral with over 2.1 million views on Facebook public Page and 1.4 million views on Arts in
Paris post.
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2017 Post identity Pavilion of the New Wrong Digital Art Biennial
Moving Image Fair, Armory Arts week New York, #ArtHack on Instagram.
Armory Art Show New York #ArtHack, on Instagram.
"Closed Due to Flooding, But Open For VIPs", Frieze Art Fair #ArtHack, Instagram.
Art Basel Switzerland #ArtHack, Instagram.
Art Basel Miami #ArtHack, Instagram
“Nude Glitch at Gagosian # ArtHack on Instagram
“Glitched Odalisque at the Whitney” #Arthack on Instagram
“Dolos and Wireframe At Freize London”, #Arthack on Instagram
“I Can’t Wear Those Shoes with Bernie Sanders”, Art Basel Miami #ArtHack
“Coruscate”, Instagram Art.
2016 David & Goliath an Avateered Performance, AC Institute, New York NY
Animated Architecture in Dumbo Video Art at the Rabbithole Studio, Brooklyn, NY
Incite/Insight at Colab Inc. Brooklyn, NY
Frieze New York, #Art hacks No1, No2, and No3, Instagram.
Art Basel Switzerland, ArtHack No1 and no2, Instagram.
Frieze London #ArtHack No1 and No2, Instagram.
“Pussy Fights Back at Art Basel”, Art Basel Miami #ArtHack on Instagram
“Art Basel #ArtHack No 2” Art Basel Miami #ArtHack on Instagram
2015 Art in the Age of Turbo Capitalism Ca D’Oro Gallery, Chelsea, NY
Feminism (n.):Plural, Woman Made Gallery. Chicago, Illinois.
International Fine Arts Consortium Gallery, Athens, Greece
Shout Your Freedom, Studio 26 Gallery, LES, NY,
The Subtle Image, Déjà Vu Gallery, Upper West Side, NY, NY
White Roof Project Art Auction Exhibition and Benefit, Center for Social Change,
Chelsea, NY
Art By Animators, Cartoon 8 Festival, Café Nadery, NY, NY
2014 “6 Women Artists” Los Angeles Center for Digital Art, LA
Pirate States Video Art program from the Mykonos Biennale at Vanessa Quang Gallery,
Paris, France
“Separation Anxiety II: Relapse” at IFAC/Wallplay Booth, Cutlog Art Fair, Frieze Art
Fair Week, NYC.
“Separation Anxiety i”, Wall Play, Lower East Side, NY, NY
New Media Exposure Artist, Starry Night, 2014 Select Art Fair, New York Frieze Art
Fair Week.
#OccupyCommonGroundart group exhibition at St Paul cathedral, NY, NY
Kiss, Group Video Art exhibition, Terror Gallery. Lima, Peru.
“Are We Already Gone” Group Art Exhibition at Flickerlab, Soho, NY
Inauguration of the Media Gallery, Los Angeles Center for Digital Art
Video Art Exhibition Series, St Edmonds Hall, Saint Michael’s College, Colchester
Vermont
Art From the Heart, Gowanus Loft, Vanderbilt Republic, Gowanus, Brooklyn
2013 Official Gallery of the 2013 Dumbo Arts Festival, Brooklyn, NY.
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Pirate States, Cine Manto, Mykonos Biennale, Mykonos Greece
Video After Hours, Art Basel, Miami.
May Day, Peanut Underground Art Project, New York, NY
Mobile & Humanity Art Show, Microsoft Center, Chicago, and various galleries as
part of the Travelling Exhibition. Winner, Audience Choice Best of Show.
100 Years in the Underground: Steichen to Sherman, Armory Show Group Exhibit,
Peanut Underground Art Project, New York, NY
2012 Diaspora Group Exhibit at New Century Artists Gallery, New York, NY
AgitPOP, Guided By Invoices Gallery, New York, NY (curated by Anthony Haden
Guest)
Frenzy Into Folly, St Paul the Apostle Church, New York, NY
PAM Video After Hours, Art Basel Miami, Florida.
All Night Bookstore, Peanut Underground Gallery, New York, NY
Los Angeles New Media Festival, LA Center for Digital Art (LACDA), Los Angeles,
Backlash, Soho20 Gallery, New York, NY
PAM (Perpetual Art machine) Anti VIP Afterhours Screenings, Art Basel, Miami, Florida
Works on Paper, Jeffrey Leder Gallery, New York, NY
2011 Occupy the Walls, AC Institute Gallery, New York, NY
The Occupy Wall Street Show, Loft in the Red Zone (23 Wall Street), New
York, NY
2010 Found on Facebook, Arthur M. Burger Gallery, Manhattanville College, Purchase,NY
Art Car, curated Video Art exhibit. The Armory Show. New York, NY
2009 Dumbo Arts Festival, Galapagos Art Space. Brooklyn, NY
2008 Siggraph 2009 Computer Animation Festival and DVD Review (Best of)
BWAC, Clinton Hill Gallery. Brooklyn, NY
Lumen Eclipse, Outdoor Video Art Gallery, Harvard Square, Boston, Ma Visual
Music Marathon, SIGGRAPH 2007 Art Performances. Center for
2007 Computer Art Exhibition by Research in Computing and the Arts (CRCA) at the
University of California, San Diego.
The Art Disk DVD, Hotel Victor, Diva Fair. Art Basel. Miami, Fla
Art of the Digital Show, Lyceum Theater Gallery. San Diego, California.
Not Still Art Festival. Micro Museum, Brooklyn. NY
2006 Cinema-Scope, Scopefair Hamptons
Resfest Korea Art Exhibition. Art Center Nabi. Seoul, South Korea.
(Finalist)
Siggraph ’03 Traveling Art Show. Cite des Sciences et de l'Industrie,
France.
2005 "CG'03", Siggraph 2003 International Traveling Art Show. Court Gallery,William
Patterson University. Wayne, NJ.
2004 “Water Show”, Brooklyn Working Artists Coalition. Red Hook, Brooklyn.
CG’03. Ewing Gallery, University of Tennessee. Knoxville, Tenn.
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Group Exhibition. Salena Gallery, Long Island University, Brooklyn, NY.
CG’03. Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (National University of
Mexico, UNAM). San Antonio, Tx
CG’03. Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, Oh.
2003 CG’03. Salon D’Autumn, Paris, France.
Siggraph 2003 Art Gallery. San Diego Ca. (30 Year Computer Art Gallery and
International Travelling Exhibit)
2002 Women Artists, Resnick Gallery, Long Island University, Brooklyn, NY
2000 Siggraph 2000 Art Gallery. New Orleans, La.
1999 “Digital ‘99” at the Louis Jeannette Brooks Engineering Center at the Brooks Center
Gallery, Cooper Union, NY.
“Digital ‘99”, at the Technology Gallery: NY Hall of Science Museum, Queens, NY.
1998 Dream Centenary CG Grand Prixe ‘99, exhibition of Winners and Finalists Aizu,
Japan
“Digital Americana Art & Technology ‘98” at the Orlando Museum of Art. “On
the Fly” computer art exhibition at Siggraph ‘98. Orlando, Florida.
1997 Group Exhibition”, Salena Gallery. Long Island University, Brooklyn, NY.
1996 “Password Ferdyduke”, Postmaster’s Gallery, New York, NY
Dotcom Gallery at the New York International Technology Center Building,
New York, NY
1995 Dotcom Gallery launch (Internet based), featured artists, sponsored by Prodigy Inc.
Group Exhibition, Mary Anthony Galleries, New York, NY
The 1995 New York International Video Festival, exhibition Annex at Mary Anthony
Galleries, New York, NY
“SYNAESTHESIA", Mary Anthony Galleries, New York, NY
Group Exhibit, Mary Anthony Galleries, New York, NY
1993 “Body & Soul”, group exhibition, Triangle Theater of Long Island University, Brooklyn,
NY.
“Cyberdelia Zone” at Synchro Energize, New York, NY
1990 “Art Thang”(Siggraph), Cube Gallery, MIT, Mass.
"NY NOW", Room 81 gallery, Boston, Mass.
1989 "Helms Degenerate Art Show", Cave Canem, New York, NY
1988 “Alchemedia”, AmiExpo, Javitz Center. New York, NY
“Marcia Resnick Framed” by Marjan Moghaddam, Paula Cooper Gallery, Woodstock
NY
1987 Video Art Installation at Cafe Bustello, New York, NY
Video Installation, Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City, NY
1986 “Electronic Visions”, Pompeii gallery, New York, NY
Digital Artist Marjan Moghaddam’s Viral Instagram Hacks Take Over
Digital Artist Marjan Moghaddam has taken on major art galleries and art fairs with her
subversive #arthack project for the last 2 years. One of her recent hacks, originally posted on
Instagram, has gone viral with millions of views. The artist’s work “Baissier at Mary Boone
Gallery in Glassish and Waxish,” which was originally posted to Instagram, has been featured on
several of the biggest art channels, garnering over 2 million views on the Art Gates Post, 1.7
million views on the Nowness Facebook Post, and millions of other views on top Art Channels
such as Arts Hub (780k), ArtsXDesign (660k), Wonderful Bucket List (480k), Love Watts
(370k), Avante Art (300k), Rated Modern Art (282), Artyfisheel (260k), 9 Gageyegasm (185k),
and tens of thousands of other regrams and shares. The original work has now been remixed by
others as an art meme, combining their own effects and graphics into tribute versions to
Moghaddam’s artwork.
The work continues to rack up tens of thousands of new views daily, a testament to the powerful
impact that co-opting the art world within the context of the artist’s digital #arthacks has on the
wider creative field. Re-framing these digital “graffitis” into augmented reality, the artist has
pioneered an innovative visual method for “hacking” conventional imagery. The #arthacks on
Instagram have allowed her to not only create a new form for social media art while radicalizing
art curation, but have also helped her to incorporate political and social activism while engaging
in a critical dialog about the excessive financialization and commodification of the art world.
Moghaddam explains: “merely hacking is just transgressive, but to do so with social and political
activism and as a critical dialog, becomes transformative.”
Since 2016, the Brooklyn-based artist has been using a combination of mixed reality, 3-D
Computer Graphic video-bombing, digital graffiti, special effects, augmented reality and her
signature style motion captured #digitalbodies to literally hack her art into found and shot
footage of art exhibitions, from major art fairs to museum and gallery shows, as part of
democratizing and disrupting the exhibition space. For the art fair hacks, she creates the work in
a day or two in an improvisational manner, sometimes motion capturing herself, and posts it
during the fair. Last year, she was shortlisted for the International Digital Sculpture Prize for this
conceptual body of work. She is currently exhibiting at Ulm Museum, Germany, one of her
#digitalbodies from the Frieze NY 2016 art hack as a physical exhibition and Android-based
Augmented Reality App, at “Digital Sculpture: Into the Unknown”. For the most recent Armory
show in 2018, she created a money-soaked, multi-shot visual feast/extravaganza set to Rihanna’s
Bitch Better Have My Money remixed by Grandtheft featuring a shot of art world scion Jeffrey
Deitch making deals at the fair.
She often also uses remixed music found on the internet, as further crowdsourcing and
aggregating of the posted internet art. For Art Basel Miami 2017, she used an excerpt of a Bernie
Sanders’ speech criticizing the 1% as her #digitalbodies caressed the John Baldessari chair. And
for the London Frieze 2017 hack she created a wandering Dolos, the Greek God of Illusion, with
a wireframe echo, set to a Frieze Art talk about Fake News and the illusory nature of Art by
Ralph Rugoff of Hayward Gallery.
The artist continues to make strides ahead with her #arthacks to level the playing field in favor of
gender equality, art world equanimity and advocating for the 99% often excluded from the art
world’s inner circle.