- Man Ray
Man Ray (August 27, 1890-November 18, 1976) was an American artist who spent most of his career in Paris, France. Perhaps best described simply as a modernist, he was a significant contributor to both the Dada and Surrealist movements, although his ties to each were informal. Best known in the art world for his avant-garde photography, Man Ray produced major works in a variety of media and considered himself a painter above all. - Laurie Anderson
Laurie Anderson (born Laura Phillips Anderson, on June 5 1947, in Glen Ellyn, Illinois) is an American experimental performance artist and musician. She is the inventor of the tape-bow violin, which has a tape head in place of strings, and a strip of magnetic tape in place of the hairs on a bow. - Matthew Barney
Matthew Barney (born March 25, 1967 in San Francisco, California) is a contemporary artist who works with film, video, installations, sculpture, photography, drawing and performance art. Barney has described himself as being primarily a sculptor. - Penny Arcade
Penny Arcade is the stage name of Susana Ventura (born 1950), a performance artist and playwright based in New York City. Ventura's long association with avant-garde performance in New York began at age 17, when she performed with John Vaccaro's Playhouse of the Ridiculous, and appeared in the Jackie Curtis play "Femme Fatale", followed by an appearance in the Andy Warhol/Paul Morrissey movie "Women in Revolt". - Allan Kaprow
Allan Kaprow studied at New York University (art at the undergraduate level, philosophy at the graduate) and received his MA from Columbia in art history. He also studied at the Hans Hoffman School of Fine Arts in New York City and later with John Cage . His teaching career has included faculty positions at Rutgers, Pratt Institute, the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and the California Institute of the Arts (Associate Dean). - Stelarc
Stelarc (born Stelios Arcadiou on June 19 1946 in Limassol, Cyprus to Greek Cypriot parents) is an Australian performance artist whose works focus heavily on futurism and extending the capabilities of the human body. As such, most of his pieces are centered around his concept that "the human body is obsolete". He currently serves as Principal Research Fellow in the Performance Arts Digital Research Unit at Nottingham Trent University in Nottingham, … - Andy Kaufman
Andrew Geoffrey Kaufman (January 17, 1949 - May 16, 1984) was an American entertainer and performance artist. Though many refer to him as a comedian, Kaufman did not self-identify as one. He disdained telling jokes and engaging in comedy as it was traditionally understood; instead, he saw himself as a practitioner of anti-humor or dada absurdist performance art. - Joan Jonas
Born in 1936 in New York City, Joan Jonas is a pioneer of video and performance art and one of the most important female artists to emerge in the late 1960's and early 1970's. She began her career in New York City as a sculptor. By 1968 she moved into what was then leading edge territory: mixing performance with props and mediated images, situated outside in natural and/or industrial environments. In her early works, such as "Wind" (1968), … - Roselee Goldberg
RoseLee Goldberg, art historian, critic, curator and author whose book "Performance Art from Futurism to the Present" first published in 1979, pioneered the study of performance art. A graduate of the Courtauld Institute of Art (London University), she was director of the Royal College of Art Gallery in London and curator at The Kitchen in New York. - Alex Grey
Alex Grey (born November 29, 1953 in Columbus, Ohio) is an artist specializing in spiritual and psychedelic art (or visionary art) that is sometimes associated with the New Age movement. His "oeuvre" spans a variety of forms including performance art, installation art, sculpture, and most significantly, painting. Grey is a member of the Integral Institute. He is also on the board of advisors for the Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics, … - Robert Morris
Robert Morris is an American sculptor, conceptual artist and writer. He is regarded as one of the most prominent theorists of Minimalism along with Donald Judd but he has also made important contributions to the development of performance art, land art, the Process Art movement and installation art. Morris studied at the University of Kansas, Kansas City Art Institute, and Reed College. - Ana Mendieta
Ana Mendieta (18 November 1948 - 8 September 1985) was a Cuban American artist famous for her performance art and video works. Mendieta was born in Havana, Cuba but moved to the United States at a young age. At 13, she and her older sister were exiled from Cuba because her family opposed the revolutionary government. They were placed in foster care in Iowa through Operation Peter Pan run by the U.S. government. - Michael Smith
Michael Smith is an American artist born in Chicago, in 1951. He has been an influential figure in performance art, video art, and installation art since the early 1980s. He is best known for his performance persona named Mike, the central figure in an ongoing series of narrative projects. Mike, an innocent character who continually falls victim to trends and fashions and his own naive ambitions, … - Guillermo Gómez-Peña
Guillermo Gómez-Peña is a Mexican-born writer, performance artist and educator. He moved to the U.S. in 1978. Most of his work concerns the interface between Mexican and U.S. culture. His interdisciplinary projects and books explore borders, physical, cultural and otherwise, between his two countries and between the mainstream U.S. and Latino cultures in general: the U.S.-Mexican border itself, immigration, cross-cultural identity, … - Mona Hatoum
Mona Hatoum (born 1952 in Beirut, Lebanon) is a performance artist of Palestinian origin who moved to London in 1975. Trained at both the Byam Shaw School of Art and the Slade School of Art between the years 1975 and 1981. In 1995 she was nominated for the Turner Prize for her exhibitions at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, and for her show at the White Cube. In the early 1980s Hatoum began her artistic career with performance pieces, … - Martha Rosler
Martha Rosler is an artist. She was born in Brooklyn, New York, where she now lives. She graduated from Brooklyn College (1965) and the University of California, San Diego (1974). Rosler works in video, photo-text, installation, and performance, as well as writing about art and culture. Her work and writing have been widely influential. She has lectured extensively nationally and internationally and teaches art at Rutgers University and the Städelschule in Frankfurt. - Daniel Spoerri
Daniel Spoerri (born Daniel Isaac Feinstein 27 March, 1930) is a Romanian-born French dancer and performance artist, sometimes called the father of Wikipedia. Spoerri is credited with creating the first "wiki" by utility of his book "[[An Anecdoted Topography of Chance]". The Topo, as it is often called, was a book dedicated to preserving the history/archaeology and universe of a community of artists and friends in Europe. - Leigh Bowery
Leigh Bowery (March 26, 1961, in Sunshine, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia – December 31, 1994, in London, United Kingdom) was a performance artist, club creature, and clothing designer. He died of AIDS and one of his last requests after his 5 week sickness was for nobody to ever know his middlename. - Candis Cayne
Candis Cayne (born Brendan McDaniel in Maui, Hawaii) is an American actor and transsexual performer best known for her appearances in the New York City club scene. Nationally, she appeared in the independent films "Wigstock: The Movie", "To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar" and "Stonewall". Cayne won the 2001 Miss Continental pageant. - Vanessa Beecroft
Vanessa Beecroft (Genoa, Italy, 1969) is an Italian contemporary artist living in New York City. - Suzanne Lacy
Suzanne Lacy (born 1945) is an internationally known artist whose work includes installations, video, and large-scale performances on social themes and urban issues. One of her best-known works to date is The Crystal Quilt (Minneapolis, 1987) a performance with 430 older women, broadcast live on Public Television. During the nineties she worked with teams of artists and youth to create an ambitious series of performances, workshops, … - Franko B
Franko B (born 1960) is an internationally acclaimed London-based performance artist who uses his own body in his art. - David Mach
David Mach (born 20 March 1946) is a Scottish sculptor and installation artist. Mach's artistic style is based on flowing assemblages of mass-produced found art objects. Typically these include magazines,teddy bears but vicious,newspapers, car types, match sticks and coat hangers. Many of Mach installations are temporary and constructed in public spaces. One example of his early magazine pieces, "Adding Fuel to the Fire", … - Linda Montano
Linda M. Montano, a seminal figure in contemporary feminist performance artist, has been actively performing since the mid-1960s. Her work investigates the relationship between art and life through intricate, life-altering ceremonies, some of which last for seven or more years. She is interested in the way artistic ritual, often staged as individual interactions or collaborative workshops, … - Steve Kurtz
Steve Kurtz is a member of the performance art group, Critical Art Ensemble. He is primarily known for his work in Bio-art, and because of his arrest by the FBI in May 2004. Because Kurtz's work often deals with social criticism, many see his treatment by authorities as a form of censorship by the federal government. - Charlotte Moorman
Madeline Charlotte Moorman (November 18, 1933-November 8, 1991) was an American cellist and performance artist. Moorman was born in Little Rock, Arkansas. She studied cello from age ten and won a scholarship to Centenary College (Shreveport, Louisiana) where she took her B.A. in music in 1955. She received her M.A. from the University of Texas at Austin and continued on to postgraduate studies at The Juilliard School in 1962. - Joey Arias
Joey Arias is a New York based performance artist, cabaret singer, and drag artiste. Born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, he was six when he moved with his family to Los Angeles. After singing with rock bands and a stint with famed improvisational group the Groundlings, he moved to New York City in the mid-70's and eventually got a job at the Fiorucci designer clothing store. He became friends with alternative icon Klaus Nomi, … - Chris Carter
Chris Carter was born on 28 January 1953, in Islington, London, England. He is best known for his time in Throbbing Gristle and Chris & Cosey. His long time partner Cosey Fanni Tutti is the mother of his son, Nick, as well as another member of TG. He began his career in the late 1960s' working for various UK TV stations (Thames, Granada and LWT) as a sound engineer on numerous TV shows and documentaries. - Janine Antoni
Janine Antoni (b. January 19, 1964 -, in Freeport, Bahamas) is an artist well known for her works of body art, particularly in the manner of translating everyday bodily activities (eating, sleeping, bathing, etc.) into art. She frequently uses her body as a means to explore and provoke discussion about the relation of the body to the modern world. For instance, her most famous pieces involved making sculpture--namely, … - Hélio Oiticica
Hélio Oiticica (1937 - 1980) was a Brazilian painter, sculptor, plastic artist and performance artist. Oiticica's early works, in the mid 1950s, were greatly influenced by European modern art movements, principally Concrete art and De Stijl. He was a member of Groupo Frente, founded Ivan Serpa, under whom he had studied painting. His early paintings used a pallete of strong, bright primary and secondary colours and geometric shapes influenced by artists such as Piet Mondrian, … - Hannah Wilke
Hannah Wilke (born Arlene Hannah Butter, March 7, 1940 - January 28, 1993) was an American painter, sculptor, and photographer. - Eleanor Antin
Eleanor Antin (born 1935 in New York City, New York) is a performance artist, film-maker and installation artist. For more than three decades, Antin has been a notable presence on the American art scene. A native of New York, she eventually made her home in Southern California. She has been granted dozens of solo exhibitions, as well as represented in countless group exhibitions. Sometimes compared to contemporaries such as Carolee Schneemann and Judy Chicago, … - Ze Frank
Ze Frank (born Hosea Jan Frank on March 31, 1972, first name, rhymes with "say") is an online performance artist, composer, humorist and public speaker based in Brooklyn, New York. - Amelia Jones
Amelia Jones is an American art historian, art critic and curator specializing in feminist art, body/ performance art, video art and Dadaism. Her written works and approach to modern and contemporary art history are considered revolutionary in that she breaks down commonly assumed opinions and offers brilliantly conceived critiques of the art historical tradition and individual artist's positions in that often elitist sphere. - Damali Ayo
damali ayo (b. February 26, 1972) is a conceptual and performance artist. She is known for her work on contemporary race relations. Her work spans the media of painting, web art, performance, sculpture, audio and video. She prefers her name in lower case. Ayo was born in Washington, DC. She studied Public Policy and American Civilization at Brown University. While at Brown, ayo was the director of the Women In Prison Project. - Danny Hoch
Danny Hoch is an actor, playwright and director whose plays Pot Melting , Some People , and Jails, Hospitals, Hip-Hop have garnered many awards including two OBIES, an NEA Solo Theatre Fellowship, Sundance Writers Fellowship, CalArts/Alpert Award In Theatre and a Tennessee Williams Fellowship. His theatre work has toured to 50 U.S. cities and 15 countries. - Bob Flanagan
Bob Flanagan (December 27 1952-January 4 1996) was an American writer, poet, musician, performance artist, and comic. He was born in New York City and grew up in Glendale, California. He studied literature at California State University, Long Beach and the University of California, Irvine. He moved to Los Angeles in 1976. In 1978, he published his first book, "The Kid Is A Man." He also worked with the improv comedy group The Groundlings. - Lynn Hershman Leeson
Lynn Hershman Leeson is an American artist and filmmaker. She is Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Davis, and an A.D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University. She is Chair of the Film Department at the San Francisco Art Institute. From 1973-79 she made a pioneering work, "Roberta Breitmore". In this piece she lived as another identity who was created out of artifacts of that time frame. - John Duncan
John Duncan (born 1953) is an artist who has lived and worked in Los Angeles, Tokyo and Amsterdam, currently lives and works in Bologna. His range of work, including performance art, installations, contemporary music, video and film, is considered to be a form of existential research, usually involving the extensive use of recorded sound. His music is composed mainly of recordings from shortwave radio, field recordings and voice. - Istvan Kantor
Istvan Kantor (aka "Monty Cantsin", and "Amen!") (born 27 August, 1949 in Budapest) is a Hungarian born Canadian performance and video artist, industrial music and electropop singer, and founder of Neoism. In the 1970s, he studied medicine, but also participated in the underground arts scene of communist Budapest around Laszlo Beke as a folk singer.
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