Michael Takeo Magruder
- Website ,
- 'X' (Twitter) ,
- Facebook ,
- Instagram ,
- Vimeo
Michael Takeo Magruder (b.1974, US/UK, www.takeo.org) is a visual artist and researcher who works with emerging media including real-time data, VR environments, mobile devices, digital archives, and AI processes. His practice explores concepts ranging from media criticism and aesthetic journalism to digital formalism and computational aesthetics, deploying Information Age technologies and systems to examine our networked, media-rich world.
In the last 25 years, Michael’s projects have been showcased in over 300 exhibitions in 35 countries, including the British Library, London; Circulo de Bellas Artes, Madrid; the Courtauld Institute of Art, London; EAST International, Norwich; Eastside Projects, Birmingham; FACT, Liverpool; Georges Pompidou Center, Paris; KIBLA Multimedijski Center, Maribor; Museum of London; Nam June Paik Art Center, Seoul; QUAD, Derby; SESI’ Cultural Centre, São Paulo; Somerset House, London; Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography; and Trans-Media-Akademie, Hellerau. His art has been funded by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; Arts Council England; the British Council; the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation; the EU Culture Programme; the Leverhulme Trust; the National Endowment for the Arts, US; and the National Lottery, UK. Michael has been commissioned by numerous public galleries in the UK and abroad and by the leading Internet Art portal Turbulence.org. He is represented by Gazelli Art House in Mayfair, London.
In 2010, Michael was selected to represent the UK at Manifesta 8: the European Biennial of Contemporary Art and several of his most well-known digital artworks were added to the Rose Goldsen Archive of New Media Art at Cornell University. In 2013, he was a Leverhulme Trust artist-in-residence (2013-14) collaborating with Prof Ben Quash (Theology, King’s College London) and Alfredo Cramerotti (Director, Mostyn) to research and develop a new solo exhibition – entitled De/coding the Apocalypse – exploring contemporary creative visions inspired by and based on the Book of Revelation. In 2014, Michael was commissioned by the UK-based theatre company Headlong to create two new artworks – PRISM (a new media installation reflecting on Headlong’s production of George Orwell’s 1984) and The Nether Realm (a living virtual world inspired by Jennifer Haley’s play The Nether). The following year, he was awarded the 2015 Immersive Environments Lumen Prize for his virtual reality installation A New Jerusalem. More recently, Michael has worked with Prof Aaron Rosen (Director, Parsonage Gallery) to develop projects reflecting on current issues surrounding migration in the West including the Syrian Civil War (Lamentation for the Forsaken, 2016) and the US southern border crisis (Zero Tolerance, 2018). He was artist/researcher-in-residence at the British Library, undertaking the Imaginary Cities (2019) project that creatively examines digital map archives drawn from the Library’s One Million Images from Scanned Books collection on Flickr Commons. In 2020, Michael was the first ever artist-in-residence at the UK National Archives and explored the institution's ongoing digital transformation and what constitutes an archive in the 21st century. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Michael was virtual artist-in-residence at the Henry Luce III Center for the Arts & Religion in Washington, DC where he investigated social and ethical issues surrounding the international health crisis.
Michael received his formal education at the University of Virginia, USA and graduated in 1996 with a BSc (Hons) in molecular biology. His research focuses on the intersections between contemporary art, emerging technology, and interdisciplinary practice. Michael’s writings have been widely published, with contributions appearing in books and journals such as: Poetics Today (2020, Duke University Press, US); Art Libraries Journal (2016, Cambridge University Press, UK); NJP Reader #5 (2014, Nam June Paik Art Center, KR); Preserving Complex Digital Objects (2014, Facet, UK); the International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media (2011, Intellect, UK); Theatre without Vanishing Points (2010, Alexander Verlag, DE), Performing Technology: User Content and the New Digital Media (2009, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, UK); Virtual/Physical Bodies (2008, Centre des Arts, FR) and Die Welt als virtuelles Environment (2007, TMA Hellerau, DE). In addition, Michael has published two monographs: (re)mediation_s 2000-2010 (2012, Peterborough Museum & Art Gallery, UK) that outlines a decade of his work within the areas of news media, mobile devices and virtual worlds; and Imaginary Cities (2019, British Library, UK) that documents his solo exhibition at the British Library.
Education and Positions:
- 2020-2023 Virtual Artist in Residence, Henry Luce III Center for Arts & Religion, US
- 2019-2022 Artist in Residence : The National Archives, Kew, UK
- 2016-2021 Artist & Researcher in Residence, British Library, London, UK
- 2014-2020 Associate Artist, Centre for Arts & the Sacred, King’s College London, UK
- 2012-2014 Artist in Residence, Dept. of Theology, King’s College London, UK
- 2005-2014 Artist & Researcher, Dept. of Digital Humanities, King’s College London, UK
- 2003-2005 Artist & Researcher, 3D Visualisation Lab, University of Warwick, UK
- 1992-1996 BS (Hons) in Biological Science, University of Virginia, US
Solo Exhibitions and Projects (selected: 50+ in total):
- 2022 Sea Watch, The Parsonage, Searsport, ME, US
- 2021 [re]Encoding the Archive, The National Archives, Kew, London, UK
- 2019 Zero Tolerance, Hå Gamle Prestegard, Nærbø, NO
- 2019 Imaginary Cities, The British Library, London, UK
- 2018 Undocumented (with Bently Spang), Kirks’ Grocery, Billings, MT, US
- 2018 De/coding the Apocalypse, Panacea Museum, Bedford, UK
- 2017 Stranded Monuments (with Cristian Rusu), Galeria Plan B, Cluj, RO
- 2017 Lamentation for the Forsaken, VTS & Wesley Theological Seminary, US
- 2014 De/coding the Apocalypse, Inigo Rooms, Somerset House, London, UK
- 2014 The Nether Realm, The Royal Court Theatre, London, UK
- 2010 PRISM, Cultural Institute at King’s College London, London, UK
- 2010 Living Data, Peterborough Museum, Watermans, Brindley, Dame Hannahs. et. al., UK
- 2010 (in)Remembrance [11-M], Manifesta 8: European Biennial of Contemporary Art, Murcia, ES
- 2010 Vanishing Point(s) & Communion v2.0, Digital Humanities 2010, King’s College London, UK
- 2009 Changing Room v1.0, Eastside Projects, Birmingham, UK
- 2009 Data_Sea v1.0, Thinktank Science Museum, Millennium Point, Birmingham, UK
- 2007 Addressable Memory, Peterborough Museum, Gibbard Gallery, South Hill Park, et. al., UK
- 2005 Communion v1.0 : exhibition : 20-21 Visual Art Centre : Scunthorpe, UK
- 2004 [retrospection], Old Market Hall Media Centre, Shrewsbury, UK
- 2003 [element]al, Norden Farm Centre for the Arts, Maidenhead, UK
- 2001 [element]s, Phillips Gallery - Brewhouse Art Centre, Taunton, UK
- 2000 ¿Transcendence?, Alsager Gallery, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK
- 1999 Archive, The Warwick & Leamington Festival, Warwick, UK
- 1998 Michael Takeo Magruder, Lanchester Gallery, Coventry University, UK
Group Exhibitions and Projects (selected: 250+ in total):
- 2023 Art Meets Science, MDI Biological Laboratory, Bar Harbor, ME, US
- 2023 GAZELL.iO - ART SG, Marina Bay Sands Expo & Convention Centre, SG
- 2022 Parallel Worlds - CineGlobe 2022, The Globe, CERN, Geneva, CH
- 2021 Orase Invizibile/Tarâmuri Imaginare, Comenduirea Garnizoanei,Timisoara, RO
- 2020 Enter Through the Headset 5, Gazelli Art House, London, UK
- 2019 Tense Present, KIBLA Portal, Maribor, SI
- 2019 Secret Rivers, Museum of London Docklands, London, UK
- 2018 Enter Through the Headset 3, Gazelli Art House, London, UK
- 2018 And I Will Take You to Paradise, Art Museum KUBE, Ålesund, NO
- 2018 Memoria RAM, Museo Extremeño e Iberoamericano de Arte Contemporáneo, Badajoz, ES
- 2017 Stations of the Cross, Washington DC, US
- 2017 Gazell.io, Gazelli Art House, London + Internet, UK
- 2016 FILE 2016, FIESP Cultural Center, São Paulo, BR
- 2016 Stations of the Cross, London, UK
- 2015 Lumen Prize 2015, various international venues
- 2015 Videomedeja - 19, Museum of Contemporary Art of Vojvodina, Novi Sad, CS
- 2015 Your Jewish Museum: Journeys, Jewish Museum London, London, UK
- 2015 Soirée Oculus Rift - CineGlobe 2015, The Globe, CERN, Geneva, CH
- 2014 The C(h)roma Show, Croma store Indiranagar, Bangalore, IN
- 2014 Paik-Orwell Club - Warez Academy [7], Nam June Paik Art Center, Seoul, KR
- 2014 Rewritten by Machine & New Technology, Indiana State University, US
- 2013 London Design Festival: Digital Design Weekend, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK
- 2013 Digital Shoreditch 2013, Shoreditch Town Hall, London, UK
- 2012 Dual, The Cutting Room @ Nottingham Playhouse, Nottingham, UK
- 2012 Robots & Avatars, FACT, UK; Europe House, UK; KIBLA Multimedijski Center, SI
- 2012 25th Stuttgarter Filmwinter, Stuttgart, DE
- 2011 VAD11 (Video & Digital Arts International) Festival, Girona, ES
- 2011 FILE São Paulo 2011, SESI’ Cultural Centre, São Paulo, BR
- 2011 All That Fits: The Aesthetics of Journalism, QUAD, Derby, UK
- 2010 FAD - Digital Art Festival, Oi Futuro Visual Arts Gallery, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, BR
- 2010 FILE São Paulo 2010, SESI’ Cultural Centre, São Paulo, BR
- 2009 Marginalia, Pace Digital Gallery, New York, NY, US
- 2009 Abstract Cabinet, Eastside Projects, Birmingham, UK
- 2009 After the End / Faux raccords - 18th Rencontres Internationales, Tabacalera, Madrid, ES
- 2008 Virtual Physical Bodies, Centre des Arts, Enghien-les-Bains, Paris, FR
- 2008 Web Flash Festival 2008, Georges Pompidou Center, Paris, FR
- 2008 Data Meanings - 15th Rencontres Internationales, El Aguila, Madrid, ES
- 2008 Mixed-Realities, Turbulence.org, Ars Virtua (Second Life), Huret & Spector Gallery, US
- 2007 CYNETart07, Trans-Media-Akademie Hellerau, Dresden, DE
- 2007 d/Art07, Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney, AU
- 2007 12th International Media Art Biennale - WRO 07, National Museum, Wroclaw, PL
- 2007 Media Criticism - 12th Rencontres Internationales, Circulo de Bellas Artes, Madrid, ES
- 2007 Faith in Exposure, Netherlands Media Art Institute, Amsterdam, NL
- 2006 Intersections, SIGGRAPH 2006 Art Gallery, Boston, MA, US
- 2006 Spectacles of the Real, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, US
- 2006 Spark Festival of Electronic Music and Art, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, US
- 2006 Culture Bound: The East Wing Collection No.7, The Courtauld Institute of Art, London, UK
- 2005 International Media Art Festival, Armenian Center for Contemporary Experimental Art, AM
- 2005 Net:Reality, 20-21 Visual Art Centre, Q-Arts, Peterborough Museum, et. al., UK
- 2005 EAST International 2005, Norwich Gallery, Norwich School of Art & Design, Norwich, UK
- 2005 Salón de Arte Digital - IV, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo del Zulia, Maracaibo, VE
- 2005 Videoformes, Musée du Ranquet de Clermont-Ferrand, Clermont-Ferrand, FR
- 2004 11th Visual Arts Biennial, New Media Centre, Gallery of Contemporary Art, Pancevo, CS
- 2004 coded cultures, MuseumsQuartier, Vienna, AT
- 2004 SeNef2004 - 5th Seoul Net & Film Festival, Seoul, KR
- 2003 Technology in Art, Olin Fine Arts Center, W&J College, US
- 2003 6th Media Arts Festival exhibition, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo, JP