Yucef Merhi

Yucef Merhi (born February 8, 1977) is a Venezuelan artist, poet and computer programmer, based in New York. He is the pioneer of digital art in Venezuela.

Yucef Merhi was born in Caracas, Venezuela. He studied at Universidad Central de Venezuela, New School University, and holds a Master's in Interactive Telecommunications from New York University. His artistic practice began in the mid 80s. He is known as the first artist in exhibiting a work of art that included a video game console, the Atari 2600, back in 1985. As the pioneer of Digital Art in Venezuela, Merhi has produced a wide body of works that engage electronic circuits, computers, video game systems, touch screens, and other devices in the presentation of his written words, like the Poetic Clock, a machine that converts time into poetry which generates 86.400 different poems daily. The resulting artworks expand the limitations of language and the traditional context of poetry, proposing a bold new role for the poet in our culture.

Merhi's career encompasses a world wide exhibition record in places such as the New Museum of Contemporary Art;Bronx Museum of the Arts;El Museo del Barrio;Eyebeam Art and Technology Center and Exit Art, all located in New York; as well as the Newark Museum (New Jersey); Orange County Museum of Art (California); Los Angeles County Museum of Art (California); De Appel (Amsterdam); Museo Michetti (Rome); Borusan Culture & Art Center (Istanbul); Paço das Artes (São Paulo); Museo del Chopo (Mexico DF); Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Yucatán (Yucatán); Museo de Bellas Artes (Caracas); Museo de Arte Contemporáneo (Caracas); Science World British Columbia (Vancouver); among many others. He also participated in the official selections of the 7th International Festival of New Film, Split, Croatia; the 2007 Bienal de São Paulo – Valencia;, the 10th Istanbul Biennial., and the 30th Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts.

...
Wikipedia