Artwork copyright Paul Berger. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Artwork copyright Paul Berger. Photo courtesy of the artist (detail).

Artwork copyright Paul Berger. Photo courtesy of the artist (detail).

FACE-08, 1993

Paul Berger
(American, born 1948)

Location: Washington State Arts Commission, Olympia

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

'FACE-06' by artist Paul Berger is composed of layered digital images that explore the evolution of computer graphics and how we process information. They also show the evolution of our computer graphics technology. Berger notes, "A computer image is capable of nearly seamless collage.” In this piece, he combines computer-generated icons and menu bars with images of graph paper. This shows the conflict between what he calls “competing informational vehicles.”

This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with Peninsula School District.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Artist Paul Berger is a pioneer in exploring the artistic possibilities of digital imagery. He combines and manipulates imagery from a huge variety of sources to investigate the meaning of images and how we dissect them. Berger notes, "I am not so much interested in the single, isolated photo image as I am in the way that images group themselves together in ways that provide us with context and meaning. I am interested in responding to common image groupings such as the printed page, the television screen, the computer printout." He first included a computer in the making of his art in the early 1980s.

Berger served as professor of art at the University of Washington for thirty-five years, co-founding the photography program in 1978. He earned a Bachelor of Arts (1970) from the University of California at Los Angeles and a Master of Fine Arts (1973) from the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, New York.