American, b. 1944
Charles Gaines has been interrogating the way meaning is constructed through lyrical, system-based works since the 1970s, when he began incorporating the grid as a central formal device in his work. A key figure in the development of Conceptual art, Gaines analyzes, overlaps, and juxtaposes different systems of representation—mathematical, photographic, linguistic, notational—in order to reveal individual fallacies and collective poignancy.
Born in 1944 in Charleston, South Carolina, and raised in Newark, Gaines graduated with a degree in fine art from Jersey City State College in 1966. The following year, he received his MFA from Rochester Institute of Technology, New York, where he developed interests in alternative modes of image making, spanning Buddhist diagrams to John Cage–inspired chance operations. An influential pedagogical figure, Gaines has taught at CalArts, Santa Clarita, California, since 1989. Since the 1990s, his practice has extended into critical writing and curatorial projects. These include the exhibition Theater of Refusal: Black Art and Mainstream Criticism, organized by Gaines for the University of California, Irvine, in 1993, which examined the conditions that African American artists faced at the time.
Born in 1944 in Charleston, South Carolina, and raised in Newark, Gaines graduated with a degree in fine art from Jersey City State College in 1966. The following year, he received his MFA from Rochester Institute of Technology, New York, where he developed interests in alternative modes of image making, spanning Buddhist diagrams to John Cage–inspired chance operations. An influential pedagogical figure, Gaines has taught at CalArts, Santa Clarita, California, since 1989. Since the 1990s, his practice has extended into critical writing and curatorial projects. These include the exhibition Theater of Refusal: Black Art and Mainstream Criticism, organized by Gaines for the University of California, Irvine, in 1993, which examined the conditions that African American artists faced at the time.
