Elizabeth Demaray
{{Short description|American sculptor}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2016}}
{{Infobox artist
| name = Elizabeth Demaray
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| nationality = American
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| field = Environmental art, conceptual art, sculpture
| training = University of California, Berkeley, California (BA, 1991; MFA, 1999)
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| awards = Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation Award (2000)
National Studio Award (2002)
Aldrich Emerging Artist Award (2003)
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| website = {{URL|elizabethdemaray.org/}}
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Elizabeth Demaray is a sculptor and interdisciplinary artist known for her inquiries into the interface between the built and the natural environment.
Demaray has created listening stations for birds that play human music, fabricated alternative forms of housing for hermit crabs from artificial materials, and built light-sensing robotic supports that allow potted plants to roam freely in search of sunlight and water.
Demaray is an associate professor of fine arts] and head of the sculpture concentration at Rutgers University–Camden. She lives and works in Brooklyn.
Education
Demaray received a BA in cognitive psychology at the University of California, Berkeley and a MFA in Art Practice at the University of California at Berkeley.{{cite web|title=Elizabeth Demaray: Biography|url=http://finearts.camden.rutgers.edu/art-and-art-history-program/art-faculty/elizabeth-demaray/|website=Rutgers University: Dept. of Fine Arts|publisher=Rutgers University|accessdate=October 12, 2016}} She also studied art at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.
Career
In 2005, Demaray, who upholstered stones and knitted sweaters for plants as part of a campaign that she described as "inappropriate care-giving activities," sewed a 27-foot long upholstered cozy for a dormant 10-ton Nike-Hercules Missile in Sausalito, CA.{{cite web|last1=Newman|first1=Andrew Adam|title=Make Frills, Not War: A Cozy for a Missile|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/05/arts/design/make-frills-not-war-a-cozy-for-a-missile.html|work=New York Times|accessdate=October 12, 2016}}{{cite web|title=Depicting Cold War Weapons|url=http://tamucc.edu/news/2011/01/Reception%20to%20be%20held%20for%20Exhibition%20Depicting%20Cold%20War%20Weapons%20Sticks%20and%20Stones%20The%20Nike%20Missile%20Cozy%20Project%20to%20open%20on%20Tuesday,%20Jan.%2018.html|publisher=Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi|accessdate=October 12, 2016}} Her Sticks and Stones: The Nike Missile Cozy Project was designed to show the nature of warfare and to familiarize the public with what served as the U.S. land to air defense during the Cold War.
In 2006, Demaray designed and produced tiny man-made houses for hermit crabs to address a housing shortage that may have resulted from the over-collecting of seashells by humans.{{cite web|last1=Fehrenbacher|first1=Jill|title=Prefabs for Hermit Crabs|url=http://inhabitat.com/prefab-fridays-prefab-for-hermit-crabs/|publisher=Inhabitat.com|accessdate=October 12, 2016}} Demaray worked with a paleontologist and a mechanical engineer to design the structures for The Hand Up Project, Attempting to Meet the New Needs of Natural Life Forms.{{cite web|last1=Dunn|first1=Collin|title=The Hand Up Project: A Helping Hand to Those in Need|url=http://www.treehugger.com/culture/the-hand-up-project-a-helping-hand-to-those-in-need.html|publisher=treehugger.com|accessdate=October 12, 2016}}
In 2007, Demaray worked with video artist John Walsh to create Inside/Outside: Habitat, on view at the Abington Art Center's Sculpture Park in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania. The project was designed to explore the musical tastes of local birds, which were offered a selection classical, rock, country and jazz music when they visited 10-foot perches. Demaray said her purpose was to encourage people to think about the impact that humans have on other species.{{cite web|title="Art "For The Birds" Created by Rutgers-Camden Prof|url=http://news.rutgers.edu/news-releases/2007/07/art-for-the-birds-cr-20070719#.VzjzCpErLIU|publisher=Rutgers Today, Rutgers University|accessdate=October 12, 2016}}
In 2010, Demaray worked with an ant researcher at the American Museum of Natural History to create Corpor Esurit, or we all deserve a break today. The artwork offered a colony of ants food from McDonald's to present a commentary on the effects of the American diet on the creatures that depend on humans for food.{{cite web|last1=Prakash|first1=Sheila|title=Desert Dwellers on a Fast-Food Diet|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/24/science/24ants.html|work=New York Times|accessdate=October 12, 2016}}
In 2011, Demaray collaborated with lichen researcher Natalie Howe to grow lichen on several buildings in New York City. The objective of her project, Lichen for Skyscrapers, was to connect New Yorkers with the natural world in an immediate way.{{cite web|last1=Eveleth|first1=Rose|author-link=Rose Eveleth |title=Artist Paints Lichens on NYC Buildings |url=http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/its-a-bird-its-a-plane-no-its-reindeer-chow-a-n-y-c-artist-uses-lichen-as-paint/ |publisher=Scientific American|accessdate=October 12, 2016}}
In a 2012 essay, Richard Klein, exhibitions director at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, described Demaray's work:
{{Blockquote|Demaray provokes complex questions concerning memory, knowledge, and the collaborative cognitive process that exists between artist and viewer, while making a body of work that has consistently confounded expectations by creating connections between diverse and often contradictory bodies of knowledge.{{cite web|last1=Klein|first1=Richard|title=Soft Rocks A Workshop with Artist Elizabeth Demaray|url=http://www.franklinstreetworks.org/soft-rocks-a-workshop-with-artist-elizabeth-demaray-upholster-your-own-rock/|website=Franklin Street Works|accessdate=October 12, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161013150841/http://www.franklinstreetworks.org/soft-rocks-a-workshop-with-artist-elizabeth-demaray-upholster-your-own-rock/|archive-date=October 13, 2016|url-status=dead}}}}
In 2013, Demaray collaborated with engineer Dr. Qingze Zou to create the IndaPlant Project: An Act of Trans-Species Giving.{{cite web|title=Branching Out: Rutgers IndaPlant Project Allows Plants to Move Freely on Robotic Carriages|url=http://news.rutgers.edu/news/branching-out-rutgers-indaplant-project-allows-plants-move-freely-robotic-carriages/20130905#.Vzja2pErLIU|publisher=Rutgers Today, Rutgers University|accessdate=October 12, 2016}} They built autonomously guided light-sensing robotic platforms for houseplants called "floraborgs," which allow potted plants to roam freely in a domestic environment in search of water and sunlight, and alert other floraborgs to their locations.{{cite web|last1=Plafke|first1=James|title=Exoskeleton turns plants into faunaborgs so they can autonomously seek sunlight and water|url=http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/155418-exoskeleton-turns-plants-into-faunaborgs-so-they-can-autonomously-seek-sunlight-and-water|publisher=ExtremeTech|accessdate=October 12, 2016}} In an article for Quartz, Christopher Mims wrote, "IndaPlant is the first effort to make plants active participants in their own care. It may be a small step for engineers, but it's a giant evolutionary leap for plant-kind".{{cite web|last1=Mims|first1=Christopher|title=Robotic exoskeleton turns everyday houseplants into sun-seeking cyborgs|url=http://qz.com/search/IndaPlant|publisher=Quartz.com|accessdate=October 12, 2016}}
=Teaching=
Demaray is an associate professor of fine arts and head of the sculpture concentration at Rutgers University–Camden. She also is a work group advisor to Rutgers University–New Brunswick's Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering and co-founder of the DigiHuman Laboratory in its Department of Computer Science, which is dedicated to supporting artistic practice in the fields of computer vision and machine learning.{{cite web|title=People|url=https://sites.google.com/site/digihumanlab/people|publisher=Digital Humanities Research Laboratory at Rutgers|accessdate=October 12, 2016}} She is an alumna of the board of the College Art Association's New Media Caucus and is a member of the Leonardo Education and Art Forum (LEAF).{{cite web|title=Elizabeth Demaray|url=http://www.leonardo.info/rolodex/demaray.elizabeth.html|publisher=Leonardo/The International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology (Leonardo/ISAST)|accessdate=October 12, 2016}}
Recognition
Demaray has received numerous awards and honors. She received awards from the National Studio Award at the New York Museum of Modern Art /P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, the New York Foundation for the Arts NYFA Fellowship in Sculpture, and the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum.{{cite web|title=National and International Studio Program Participants|url=http://www.moma.org/learn/resources/archives/ps1_studioprogram#2001|publisher=New York Museum of Modern Art|accessdate=October 12, 2016|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20161013144743/http://www.moma.org/learn/resources/archives/ps1_studioprogram#2001|archivedate=October 13, 2016|df=mdy-all}}{{cite web|title=Directory of Artists' Fellows: 1985–2013|url=https://s3.amazonaws.com/NYFA_WebAssets/Pictures/6b2ad3f7-2970-4032-9d75-d886c72943cd.pdf|publisher=New York Foundation for the Arts|accessdate=October 12, 2016}}{{cite web|title=Elizabeth Demaray Wins 2003 AEM Award|url=http://artdaily.com/news/5592/Elizabeth-Demaray--Wins-2003-AEM-Award#.VzjGrJErLIU|publisher=Artdaily.com|accessdate=October 12, 2016}}
Exhibitions
Demaray's work has been exhibited globally. Her galleries and exhibits include the New York MOMA/P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, the New Museum (New York), DADAPost (Berlin, DE), the Lloyd Digital Lab (Amsterdam, NL), the Center d'Art Marnay Art Center (Marnay-sur-Seine, FR), and the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum (San Francisco, CA).{{cite web|title=National and International Studio Program|url=http://www.moma.org/learn/resources/archives/ps1_studioprogram#2002|publisher=New York Museum of Modern Art, 2001–2002|accessdate=October 12, 2016|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20161013144743/http://www.moma.org/learn/resources/archives/ps1_studioprogram#2002|archivedate=October 13, 2016|df=mdy-all}}{{cite web|title=Dada Post Residency: Elizabeth Demaray – New York|url=http://www.dadapost.com/index.php?/2009/past/|publisher=DADAPost|accessdate=October 12, 2016|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20161018050819/http://dadapost.com/index.php?%2F2009%2Fpast%2F|archivedate=October 18, 2016|df=mdy-all}}{{cite web|title=Cities Made by People|url=https://citinerary.net/amsterdam/article/cities-made-by-people|publisher=Cintinerary|accessdate=October 12, 2016}}{{Dead link|date=August 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
Collections
Demaray's work is held in the permanent collections of The New Museum, New York, NY; di Rosa Preserve and Foundation, Napa, CA; Francis J. Greenberg Foundation, New York, NY; Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, CA; and the UC Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, CA.{{cite web|title=OMCA Collections: Elizabeth Demaray|url=http://collections.museumca.org/?q=category/made/elizabeth-demaray|publisher=Oakland Museum of California|accessdate=October 12, 2016}}
Personal
Demaray is married to art professor and painter Hugo Bastidas, noted for his large-scale black and white paintings that span geographic and historic time-frames.{{cite web|last1=Karush Rogers|first1=Teri|title=Gotta Move, Gotta Sell|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/realestate/19cov.html?_r=0|work=New York Times|accessdate=October 12, 2016}}
References
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Category:Year of birth missing (living people)
Category:Rutgers University–Camden faculty
Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni
Category:21st-century American women sculptors