RICHARD CLAR

Interdisciplinary Artist

Richard Clar, a native Southern Californian interdisciplinary artist currently based in Paris, studied at the Chouinard Art Institute (now CalArts) and has exhibited his work in museums, universities, and galleries in the U.S. and Europe. His seminal work, COLLISION II, an orbital debris constellation sculpture in low-earth orbit, was featured in the 2003 Festival Art Outsiders at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris. Clar's work can be found in corporate collections such as JBL Sound, Home Savings of America, and the MGM Grand Hotel, Las Vegas. He is the Director of Art Technologies, Los Angeles/Paris. An early pioneer of art-in-space concepts, Clar began interdisciplinary projects in 1982 with the design of Space Flight Dolphin an art payload approved by NASA to fly on the U.S. Space Shuttle. Clar's focus on the creation of art-in-space makes use of data, material, and processes related to the various facets of space. Subjects include: Orbital Debris, the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI), issues of War and Peace, and aspects related to Water. One of his early collaborative efforts with Hector Gonzalez, a Northern California artist, and Floyd Sweet, a Los Angeles electrical engineer, resulted in the Hectotron (1982) which is now in the permanent collection of the Computer Museum of America. Richard Clar was elected a Full Member of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) and has served as Secretary of the Art and Literature Subcommittee. Since 1996, he has co-chaired one of the annual Space Activities and Society sessions at the International Astronautical Congress. Clar is a member of the IAA SETI permanent Study Group. In March 2001, and again in 2002, Clar was the coordinator of the Leonardo/OLATS/IAA Space Art Workshop in Paris. Richard Clar is artist-in-residence at Companhia Espacial Portuguesa, Lda where he is collaborating with Dinis Ribeiro on the project: Alma da Agua: A Space Awareness Initiative. Clar has served on the Graphic Arts Council Executive Board of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. He is on the Cosmica Network Board of Directors.

More information may be found on the artist's web site: www.arttechnologies.com