Artist Statement

As I embark on this final life chapter, I am struck by three realizations: that to enjoy a fulfilled life, it is necessary that I make something; that my own lived experience is now my raw material; and that my faith in the transformative power of art in all its forms remains as strong as ever.

In my current work, my search for numinous presence remains a constant but its locus has migrated from abstract thought to the deeply felt as I embrace my own history and the revelations of the everyday world. I look now to the immediacy of the quotidian, the fleeting moment, the elusive detail, the slight gesture, certain that what is most important resides there, that the widest vista opens through the smallest aperture, that the greatest joy emanates from the briefest moment. It may just be that the real work is only now beginning.

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Biography

Rita Myers received her BA in 1969 from Douglass College, Rutgers University, and her MA from Hunter College, City University of New York, in 1974.

While in graduate school, Myers was one of a small cadre of artists who used video as a new tool in creating their performance pieces and installations. From 1975 to 1993, she created a significant body of video installations, large-scale, highly theatrical, and metaphorical environments. This work has been shown in many landmark exhibitions, including American Landscape Video: The Electronic Grove, Carnegie Museum of Art in 1988, and Video-Skulptur Retrospektiv und Aktuell 1963–1989, Kölnischer Kunstverein in Köln, Germany.

In 1995, Myers changed course entirely and embarked on a career in graphic design. She ran her own graphic design firm in Philadelphia from 2007 to 2019, serving clients ranging from non-profits to Fortune 500 companies.

In 2005, she returned to the fine arts, creating a photography series based on seasonal cycles in Wissahickon Park. Her recent work of photomontage distills her experiences of and within various landscapes.

Myers has received many awards, including the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, the Massachusetts Council on the Arts and Humanities, and the Jerome Foundation. In 1983, she was inducted into the Douglass Society for Distinguished Achievement.

She divides her time between Philadelphia, PA and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico with her wife, Bonnie Strahs.

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Education

1974
M.A. Hunter College, City University of New York

1969
B.A. Douglass College, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ with Honors, High Honors in Art

1968
Yale University Summer School of Music and Art, Norfolk, CT

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Collections

The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY

World Wide Video Festival, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Sammlung Verbund, Vienna, Austria

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Awards

Kite Prize, Merit Awardee, 2024

Douglass Society for Distinguished Achievement, Member 1983

First Prize, Tenth World Wide Video Festival, Kijkhuis, The Hague, The Netherlands, 1992

New York State Council on the Arts, Media Production Grant, 1998, 1991, 1985, 1983

Massachusetts Council on the Arts and Humanities, New Works Program, 1990, 1984

National Endowment for the Arts, Visual Artist Fellowship, 1987, 1980, 1976

Jerome Foundation, 1986, 1984

National Endowment for the Arts, Interarts Grant, 1984

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Other Professional Activities

Panel, Creative Artists Public Service Program (CAPS), 1977

Media Arts Panel, New York State Council on the Arts, 1985–1988

Panel, New York City Film/Video Program, Jerome Foundation, 1988–1990

Film/Video Artists Panel, MacDowell Colony, 1990–1993

Initiated “Electric Spaces,” Video/Audio Installation Touring Project of Parabola Arts Foundation, 1988

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Teaching Employment

Cooper Union, New York, NY, Adjunct Professor, 1995–2005

Maine College of Art, Non-Residency Studio Advisor, 2001–2002

Cooper Union, New York, NY, Guest Artist, 1994–1995

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, Lecturer, 1994–95

Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, Visiting Assistant Professor, 1991–92

Columbia College, Chicago, IL, Visiting Artist, Spring 1987

The School of Visual Arts, New York, NY, Instructor, Spring 1984

Hartford Art School, University of Hartford, CT, Assistant Professor, 1978–83

University of California, Irvine, Visiting Instructor, Winter 1980

Douglass College, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, Visiting Instructor, Spring 1977

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Design Employment

Rita Myers Graphic Design, Philadelphia, PA, Principal/Creative Director, 2007–2019

Macmillan McGraw-Hill, New York, NY, Executive Design Manager/Art Director 2003–2007

Alexander Design Associates, Inc., New York, NY, Design Manager/Designer, 1995–2002

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Bibliography

Marter, Joan. Women Artists on the Leading Edge: Visual Arts at Douglass College. Rutgers University Press. 2019.

Schor, Gabriele. Feminist Avant-Garde: Art of the 1970s in the Verbund Collection, Vienna. 2016.

Ashton, Diane. “Rita Myers.” Artists on the Edge: Douglass College and the Rutgers MFA. Mabel Smith Douglass Library, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, March 9–June 6, 2005. h

Hanhardt, John G. “Rita Myers.” Digital Twentieth World Wide Video Festival. World Wide Video Centre, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, May 8–25, 2003.

Barlow, Melinda. “Studio as Study: A Selection of Drawings by American Video Artists.” PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art. May 2002.

Farkas, Solange. Videobrasil, 10th Festival Internacional de Arte Eletrônica. São Paulo, November 20–25 and Rio de Janeiro, November 29–December 4, 1994.

van Vliet, Tom. Tenth World Wide Video Festival. Kijkhuis, The Hague, The Netherlands, April 6–19, 1992.

West, Justin P. Rita Myers: Archaeologist in a Phantom City. Moving Images, November–December, 1991.

Reveaux, Tony. “Video’s New Territory,” Artweek. Dec. 10, 1988.

Judson, William D. “American Landscape Video: The Electronic Grove.” Carnegie Magazine. May–June 1988.

Hanhardt, John G. “The Discourse of Landscape Video Art: From Fluxus to Post-Modernism,” in exhibition American Landscape Video. The Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA, 1988.

Paoletti, John T. “Rita Myers and Deep Time.” Arts Magazine. February 1988.

Morgan, Robert C. Review. Arts Magazine. January 1988.

Brenson, Michael. Review. The New York Times. October 30, 1987.

Sturken, Marita. “The Circle Game.” Afterimage. December 1985.

Wooster, Ann-Sargent. Review. Afterimage. February 1985.

Harrison, Helen A. “The Workings of the Artist’s Mind.” The New York Times. Sept. 23, 1984.

Potter, Jessica. Review. Art New England. February 1983.

Gever, Martha. “Traveling Light–CAPS Video Goes National.” Afterimage. April 1982.

Rice, Shelley. “Mythic Space, The Video Installations of Rita Myers.” Afterimage. January 1982.

Wooster, Ann-Sargent. “Biennial Video at the Whitney.” New York Arts Journal. April 1979.

Wooster, Ann-Sargent. “Timeless Floating A Rapture.” The Soho Weekly News. May 5, 1977.

Lippard, Lucy R. “The Pains and Pleasures of Rebirth: Woman’s Body Art.” Art in America. May–June 1976.

Frank, Peter. Review. Art News. March 1976.

Wooster, Ann-Sargent. Review. Artforum. February 1976.

Lippard, Lucy R. From The Center: Feminist Essays on Woman’s Art. E.P. Dutton & Co., NY. 1976.

Bear, Liza. “Rita Myers, A Remote Intimacy.” Interview. Avalanche. Winter 1975.

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Publications

“Morning Walk.” Beyond Words, the international magazine of word and image. Issue 45, March 2024.

“In the pandemic, I remember you.” Beyond Words, the international magazine of word and image. Issue 7, October 2020.

“Directions/Questions: Approaching a Future Mythology,” in Illuminating Video; An Essential Guide to Video Art. Edited by Doug Hall and Sally Jo.Fifer. Aperture with BAVC, 1991.

“In the Planet of the Eye.” Exhibition Catalog. Anderson Gallery, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Jan. 4–25, 1985.

Installation texts. Gnome Baker 1. October 1976.

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2025 New Now VIII, InLiquid, Philadelphia, PA

CHROMA, Art Fluent

March for Art Benefit, InLiquid, Philadelphia, PA

The First Annual Invitational Exhibition, Decagon Gallery

STAND UP! Feminist Avant-Garde, Works from the Verbund Collection, Vienna, Sprengel Museum Hanover, Germany

Land, Sea and Sky, The Photo Review 2025 Galleries

2024 From the Center, Duane Thomas Gallery, New York, NY

Expo Chicago 2024, Duane Thomas Gallery, Booth #436, Chicago, IL

Connections VIII, Artists Selecting Artists, Atlantic Gallery, New York, NY

Docile Bodies, Duane Thomas Gallery, New York, NY

I Love Lucy, The Armory Show, Duane Thomas Gallery, Booth #417, New York, NY

2024 Fall Members Juried Exhibition, Wayne Art Center, Wayne, PA

Motion, Decagon Gallery

2023 4th Annual Makers Alley Juried Art & Artisan Exhibition, New Hope Arts Center, New Hope, PA

2014 – 2018 The Feminist Avant-Garde of the 1970s, Artworks from the Verbund Collection, Vienna, Austria, Traveling, multiple European venues‍

2010 100 Years, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York, NY‍

2005 Artists on the Edge: Douglass College and the Rutgers MFA, Mabel Smith Douglass Library, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ‍

2003 Twentieth Anniversary Retrospective Exhibition, World Wide Video Centre, Amsterdam, The Netherlands‍

2002 First Decade: Video from the EAI Archives, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY‍

Body Regimes, Videos in Progress, Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI

1999 The American Century: Art & Culture 1950–2000, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

1998 Inaugural, Art Nation, Florence Lynch Gallery, New York, NY

1996 Fifteen Degrees from Rutgers, Civic Square Building Galleries, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ

1994 Videobrasil International Festival, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

1992 Tenth World Wide Video Festival, Kijkhuis, The Hague, The Netherlands

1991 The Pleasure Machine: Recent American Video, Milwaukee Art Museum, WI

1989 Video-Skulptur Retrospektiv und Aktuell 1963–1989, Kölnischer Kunstverein, Köln, Germany

Making Their Mark: Women Artists Move into the Mainstream, 1970–1985, Cincinnati Art Museum, OH

American Landscape Video: The Electronic Grove, Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport Beach, CA

1988 American Landscape Video: The Electronic Grove, The Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA, and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA

1987 Standing Ground: Sculpture by American Women, The Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH

1986 International Forum, Video; International Film Festival, Berlin, Germany

1985 Alternating Currents, Alternative Museum, New York, NY

Kunst mit Eigen-Sinn, Museum Moderner Kunst, Vienna, Austria

1984 Video and Ritual, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY

Preparation and Proposition, Islip Art Museum, East Islip, NY

1983 Video as Attitude, The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM

1981 Video Classics, The Bronx Museum of Art, New York, NY

Alternatives in Retrospect, The New Museum, New York, NY

1979 Everson Video Revue, Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY
Traveling Exhibition

1979 Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

1977 Open Stacks, Williams College, Williamstown, MA

1976 New American Filmmakers Series, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

A Month of Sundays, P.S.1, Long Island City, New York, NY

Ten in Situ, Picker Art Gallery, Colgate University, Hamilton, NY

1975 112 Greene Street Workshop, New York, NY

Ideas at the Idea Warehouse, Institute for Art and Urban Resources, New York, NY

1974 Projekt ’74, Kunsthalle Köln, Kölnischer Kunstverein,Köln, Germany

1973 Circuit, Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY
Traveling Exhibition

c. 7500, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA
Traveling Exhibition

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SELECTED ONE-PERSON EXHIBITIONS

1993 Resurrection Body and Correspondences: Day into Night into Day, World Wide Video Centre, The Hague, The Netherlands

1992 Phantom Cities, The Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA

1990 Phantom Cities, University Gallery, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

1989 In the Drowning Pool, Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA

1988 Rift△Rise, R.H. Love Modern, Chicago, IL

1987 Rift△Rise, Alternative Museum, New York, NY

1986 Rift△Rise, Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, MA

1985 Gate, Anderson Gallery, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA

The Allure of the Concentric, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

1983 The Forms that Begin at the Outer Rim, Real Art Ways, Hartford, CT

1981 Dancing in the Land where Children Are the Light, The Kitchen, New York, NY

1980 The Points of a Star, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

1977 Barricade to Blue, The Kitchen, New York, NY

1976 Once Before You, The Kitchen, New York, NY

1975 Investigation/Observations, Walters Hall Art Gallery, Douglass College, New Brunswick, NJ

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RESIDENCIES

1992 Ucross Foundation, Sheridan, Wyoming

1987 Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University

1985 PASS Studio, New York

1977 Synapse, Syracuse University

1976 University of Colorado, Boulder

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OTHER PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

Panel, Creative Artists Public Service Program (CAPS), 1977

Media Arts Panel, New York State Council on the Arts, 1985–1988

Panel, New York City Film/Video Program, Jerome Foundation, 1988–1990

Film/Video Artists Panel, MacDowell Colony, 1990–1993

Initiated “Electric Spaces,” Video/Audio Installation Touring Project of Parabola Arts Foundation, 1988