Framed: 17 x 20 in

This graphite on paper work by Joseph Nechvatal captures the artist's energy-infused approach to drawing, with this piece entitled 'Let Us Pray'. Completed in 1982, Nechvatal fills his composition from edge to edge with a complex arrangement of lines and forms, creating an entangled mass of abstraction that seizes the viewer's attention with dynamic elements and a gray scale palette.

Conceptual digital artist Joseph Nechvatal (B. 1951) works with computers and custom created computer viruses to produce enigmatic abstracted paintings, photographs, and animations. Nechvatal developed his own art theory known as viractualism, which is based off the concept that digital technology is not only a vital means of understanding contemporary art, but making it as well. This in turn leads to an amalgamation of the virtual and the actual where the viractuality aims to create an interface between the two, employing one to create and comprehend the other. An example of this includes using computer-robotic assistance in creating paintings on canvas. Nechvatal attended Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Cornell University, and Columbia University, where he was a student of Arthur C. Danto. He has received numerous awards including three National Endowment for the Arts grants, a Pollock-Krasner Foundation award, and two New York Foundation for the Arts awards, among others. He has exhibited at numerous venues including the Andy Warhol Museum (Pittsburg, PA), Museum of Modern Art (Shenghai, China), New Museum (New York, NY), and Seoul Museum of Art (Seoul, Korea).

Select Public Collections:
Museum of Modern Art (New York, NY)
Jewish Museum (New York, NY)
Israel Museum (Jerusalem, Israel)
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Los Angeles, CA)
Portland Museum of Art (Portland, Oregon)
National Gallery of Art (Washington, DC)
Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles, CA)