Petra Cortright
Petra Cortright (1986, US) is a contemporary artist whose multifaceted artistic practice stems from creating and manipulating digital files. Cortright's digitally-conceived artworks physically exist in many forms - printed onto archival surfaces, projected onto existing architecture, or mechanically carved from stone. A notable member of what became known as the 'Post Internet' art movement of the mid-to-late-2000s with her YouTube videos and online exhibitions, Cortright later began to laboriously craft digital paintings by creating layer upon layer of manipulated images in Photoshop which she then rendered onto materials such as aluminum, linen, paper, and acrylic sheets. In addition to her 2D work, in 2018 Cortright premiered a new body of sculptural work in marble. As with her paintings, Cortright's sculptures are intended to capture and represent a digital moment - in this case a digital brush stroke - that is translated into a three-dimensional object via industrial fabrication techniques. Cortright's role as an artist is an amalgam of painter, graphic designer, editor, and producer; culminating in a singular artistic reflection of contemporary visual culture that can exist on a smartphone screen, a Times Square billboard, and anything in between.
