Faculty Profile
Bob Bingham
Professor of Art| Homepage | http://artscool.cfa.cmu.edu/~bingham |
| Office | DH C315 Campus Phone: 412.268.2221 |
Bio
Bob Bingham makes art that incorporates systems of growth, live plants and natural materials with mechanical and electronic devices. Through this combination of systems he addresses issues pertaining to a sustainable future where technology and nature exist in a symbiotic relationship. Bingham’s work has been widely exhibited in the United States, Italy and Japan including The Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia; The Brooklyn Museum; White Heat, Kanagawa Hall Gallery, Yokohama, Japan; Art+Nature, Rico Gallery, Santa Monica; Steel Cities, Cleveland Center for the Arts; and Urban Paradise/Gardens in the City, Paine Weber Art Gallery, New York. He has had many public installations including the Creative Time’s Brooklyn Bridge Anchorage; in Piazza de’ St. Stepheno Rome, Italy and the first Pittsburgh Center for the Arts Biennial. He co-directed an interdisciplinary team effort, The Nine Mile Run Greenway Project, which culminated in exhibits at the Wood Street Galleries and the Regina Miller Gallery, CMU, Pittsburgh and led to the formation of the Nine Mile Run Watershed Association.
Bingham received a B.A. in art from Montana State University, Bozeman and a M.F.A. from University of California, Davis. He is currently Associate Professor of Art and a Fellow in the STUDIO For Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon University. His work has been acknowledged with awards and grants including the National Endowments for the Arts, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Art Matters, Inc., Three Rivers Environmental Award, The Heinz Endowments and several Berkman Faculty Development Fund Grants.
His art practice evolved from “green” mixed media installations into the public realm to address issues of interconnectedness between the natural and built environment. This evolution directly affected his approach as a teacher. Bingham created a new course, Environmental Sculpture, in 1996 as part of the Environment Across the Curriculum Initiative when he became a member of the Environmental Institute at Carnegie Mellon. Later as a member of the University’s Environmental Practices committee, he advised the student project to conceptually design and assist the implementation of a “living roof” on campus. Recently, as part of the Greening of Early Undergraduate Education Initiative, he began teaching a university-wide course, EcoArt, that involves collaboration with the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy to address removal of invasive species and soil retention issues in Phipps Run, Schenley Park.
Currently he is working on a long-term collaborative project, Wegrow. Planting the seeds of a community-based urban farming and horse back riding program to creatively resettle one thousand empty lots in Homewood, a Pittsburgh East-End neighborhood, into vegetable gardens, orchards, meadows, pastures and riding arenas.
Areas of Focus: Environmental art, community-based public art.
Education: 1981 M.F.A., Sculpture and Performance, University of California, Davis 1978 B.A., Sculpture, Montana State University 1972-74 University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
Appointments:(selected) 2000-02 Co-Director, STUDIO for Creative Inquiry, Carnegie Mellon University 1996-present Fellow, STUDIO for Creative Inquiry, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh 1993-present Associate Professor of Art, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh 1994 Visiting Artist (faculty), Cooper Union School of Art, NYC 1989-91 Visiting Assistant Professor, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh 1986-88 Sculpture Instructor, St. Stephen’s International School, Rome, Italy 1985-86 Instructor, Moore College of Art, Philadelphia
Awards: (selected) 2003, 1997, 1994 Faculty Development Fund Grant, Carnegie Mellon University 1997-99 Heinz Endowments Grant for Nine Mile Run 1998 Three Rivers Environmental Award for Nine Mile Run 1992 New Forms, Regional Arts Grant 1991 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant 1989 Art Matters, Inc., Artist’s Fellowship 1988 National Endowment for the Arts, Visual Artist’s Fellowship 1986 Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Visual Artist’s Fellowship
Exhibitions: (selected) 2007 6 BILLION PERPS HELD HOSTAGE! Artists Address Global Warming, The Andy Warhol Museum, (group show)
2006 Articulating Spaces: Poets and Artists Interacting With Their Environments, Clarion University Art Gallery, (group show)
2005 Small Acts, SPACE, Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, Pittsburgh, PA 2005 Hidden in Plain Sight- The Forest in the City, Three Rivers Arts Festival Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA 2005 Under the Influence, Eye Lounge, A Contemporary Artspace, Phoenix, AZ 2004 The Air-Conditioned Nightmare, Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA 2004 Invisible Republics:Visible Art in American Publics, Surya Palace Hotel, Baroda, Gujarat, India 2004 Bob Bingham’s Ecological Artworks:Project Proposals and Documentation, New House, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 2003 Supervalitragilisticexcelluminaceous, Regina Miller Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA 2003 Green Home, Winter Palace, Staten Island, NY 2003 Earth Works: Putting Art to Work for the Sake of the Earth, artjunction.org 2002 Comfort Zone: Portable Living Spaces, Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, PA 2002 Ecovention, Contemporary Art Center, Cincinnati, OH 2002 Mandala, Healing the Environment, Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, PA 2002 Reactions, Exit Art, New York, NY 2001 Sculptors of the New Millenium II: 2001, organized by Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, PA 2001 Photographs by artists, made for a variety of purposes, curated by Robert Raczka, Artists Resource Imaging, Foreland Street Studio, Pittsburgh, PA 2000-04 Listen to the South Side , PublicArtPittsburgh, Department of City Planning, City of Pittsburgh and SSLDC 2000 Auto/Visual/Indi/Visible: School of Art Faculty Exhibition, Regina Miller Gallery, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 2000 Fusion!, Regina Miller Gallery, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 2000 Children’s Museum Design Competition Proposals, Heinz Architectural Center, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA
1999,2000 Conversations in the Rust Belt: Brownfields into Greenways, Nine Mile Run Greenway Project, Wood Street Galleries, Miller Gallery, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 1999-2001 Art for AIDS/Art For Change, sponsored by Persad Center, The Carnegie Museums, Pittsburgh 1999 White Heat, Kanagawa Kenmin Hall Gallery, Yokohama, Japan 1999 Faculty Exhibit (Part III), Foreland Street Studios, Pittsburgh, PA
1998 Art and Nature, Rico Gallery, Santa Monica, CA 1998 Challenge at 20, Samuel S. Fleisher Art Memorial, Philadelphia, PA
1997 Ample Opportunity, A Community Dialogue, Nine Mile Run, PA 1997 A Place at the Table, The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA 1997 Living Together, Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, Aichi Arts Center, Nagoya, Japan
1997 Coming of Age, Nexus, Philadelphia, PA 1996 Artists Listen to the Earth, Marsh Art Gallery, Richmond, VA 1996 Brownfields ‘96, Environmental Protection Agency Conference, Web Site Exhibit, Pittsburgh, PA 1996 National Works on Paper: Artists Listen to the Earth, Marsh Art Gallery, Richmond, VA 1995-99 Brew House Artists Exhibition (Annual), Brew House SPACE 101, Pittsburgh, PA 1995 Steel Cities, Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, Cleveland, OH 1995 Between, Bowman, Penelec & Megahan Galleries, curated by Robert Raczka, Allegheny College, Meadville, PA and Emily Davis Gallery, University of Akron, OH 1994 Pittsburgh Biennial, Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, (site-specific installation) 1994 Between, University of Akron, OH and Allegheny College, Meadville, PA 1994 Community + Art = Adopting Aliquippa, Aliquippa, PA (public installation) 1994 Urban Paradise; Gardens in the City, The Public Art Fund, Paine Webber Art Gallery, New York, NY 1993 Metal, Sponsored by Mannesmann Demag Corp., Vista Hotel, Pittsburgh, PA 1993 Sculpture at the Point, Three Rivers Art Festival, Pgh., PA (public installation) 1993 Groundswell: Art for The Earth, Westminster College Gallery, New Wilmington, PA; Chatham College Art Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA 1993 Social Catalysts, Spaces, Cleveland, OH (installation) 1992 Three Rivers Arts Festival, CNG Building, Pittsburgh, PA (pubic installation) 1992 Chatham College Art Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA (installation/solo) 1992 Brewhouse Show, Birmingham Lofts, Pittsburgh, PA 1991 Politics of Cloth, DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, MA 1991 BACA Downtown, Brooklyn, NY (installation/solo) 1991 Art Awareness, Lexington, NY (public installation) 1990 Let’s Play House, The Fabric Workshop Gallery, Philadelphia, PA 1990 Working in Brooklyn: Installations, Brooklyn Museum, NY (installation) 1990 From Form to Fancy, Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, Pittsburgh, PA 1989 Art in The Anchorage, Brooklyn Bridge Anchorage, NY (public installation) 1989 Second Thought, Momenta Art Alternative, Philadelphia, PA 1988 Morris Gallery, Penna. Academy of Fine Arts, Phila., PA (installation/solo) 1988 Five American Artists, St. Stephen’s School, Rome, Italy (public installation) 1988 Proposals and Paintings, Alverno College Fine Arts Gallery, Milwaukee, WI 1987 Tyler School of Art Abroad, Rome, Italy (site-specific installation/solo) 1987 Fabric As Concept: Conceptual Art From the Fabric Workshop, Phila., PA 1986 Staged Dramas, Hudson Gallery, New York, NY 1985 Shelter ‘85, Zenith Gallery, Washington, DC 1985 An Inside Place, The Noyes Museum, Oceanville, NJ (installation) 1985 Fourthoughts, Sculpture Exhibition, Philadelphia Art Alliance, Phila., PA 1984 Made in Philadelphia 6, Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, PA 1984 Sculpture ‘84, Beaver College, Philadelphia, PA (public installation) 1984 Zoller Gallery, Penn State University, State College, PA (installation)
