photograph by Lori E. Seid

Charles Atlas was born in St. Louis, MO in 1949; he has lived and worked in New York City since the early 1970s. Recent solo exhibitions include The Mathematics of Consciousness, a 100-foot long video installation commissioned by Pioneer Works, Brooklyn, NY, and supported by a grant from the VIA Art Fund; Charles Atlas: Ominous, Glamorous, Momentous, Ridiculous, Fondazione ICA Milano, Italy; and Charles Atlas: The past is here, the futures are coming and The Kitchen Follies, The Kitchen, New York.

In 2017, the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles acquired Atlas' five-channel video installation with sound entitled The Tyranny of Consciousness, which won a prize in Viva Arte Viva, the 57th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennial. In September 2019, Atlas unveiled The Geometry of Thought, a new commission for Art on theMART that spanned across the 2.5 acre river fac;:ade of theMART in Chicago.Atlas' work is included in the permanent collections of major institutions worldwide, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Art Institute of Chicago; San Francisco Museum of Art; Tate Modern, London; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum fur Gegenwart, Berlin; Migros Museum fur Gegenwartskunst, Zurich; and De Hallen Haarlem, The Netherlands.

Charles Atlas, A Prune Twin, 2020, Eight-channel video installation with four monitors, with sound, Dimensions variable, Installation view Luhring Augustine Chelsea, New York (January 28 – March 11, 2023). © Charles Atlas; Courtesy of the artist and Luhring Augustine, New York. Photo: John Berens.

Charles Atlas, A Prune Twin, 2020, Eight-channel video installation with four monitors, with sound, Dimensions variable, Installation view Luhring Augustine Chelsea, New York (January 28 – March 11, 2023). © Charles Atlas; Courtesy of the artist and Luhring Augustine, New York. Photo: John Berens.