Juan Downey

Juan Downey was a Chilean artist who was a pioneer in the fields of video art and interactive art.

In New York, Downey would become involved with the groups Radical Software and Raindance collective, both of them early proponents of using video for artistic and political means.

Downey is recognized as a pioneer and early adopter of video art, but during his artistic career, he created an extensive body of work that also includes electronic and video sculptures, photography, painting, drawing, printmaking, performance, installation, and writing. Downey's drawings are especially remarkable and remained a constant practice of his. All of his major works were accompanied by drawings. They reflect not only his "sureness of hand," as curators David Ross and James Harithas noted, but also his compelling ideas and visions, and they reveal a sustained practice of drawing over a lifetime.

The early period of Juan Downey's artistic practice consisted of painting, drawing, writing, and printmaking. After moving to the United States in 1965, he began to experiment with numerous forms of art that included creating interactive electronic sculptures, performances, happenings, and, in the late 1960s, video art. He wrote: "The universe is not an assemblage of independent parts, but an overlapping, interrelated system of energy. All my work relates to this vision." These media permitted Downey to investigate ideas about invisible energy as well as to invite active participation by viewers of his work.

Two seminal series in Downey's career were Video Trans Americas, begun in 1971, and The Thinking Eye, begun in the mid-1970s. Video Trans Americas (VTA.) is often divided into two groups: the first group was developed from 1973 to 1976, and the second from 1976 to 1977. The two series stress Downey's preoccupation with political discourse, the self, the history of art, Western civilization, and Latin American identity.

Text courtesy of Wikipedia, 2023