RCM Galerie is proud to present Barbara Nessim: My Past is My Present, an exhibition of the American artist’s pioneering early work with computers in the 1980s.
Barbara Nessim (b. 1939, Bronx, NY) is an artist who’s being recognized for her pioneering work in early computer art. She was one of the pathfinders to explore the creativity of computers and make extensive use of its potential as an artistic tool at the dawn of the computer age in the early 1980s. In addition, Nessim was one of the few women whose illustration entered American editorial arts in the 1960s, breaking the glass-ceiling for generations of women who followed, as well as challenging the separation between fine art and illustration. Nessim’s daring and prolific work, spanning six decades, defies narrow categorization. As a fearless ground breaker in the worlds of technology, design, and gender, Nessim has never ceased to push boundaries.
Nessim’s early computer works from the 1980s will be shown at her solo show at RCM Galerie in Paris from September 26 to November 5, 2024. This show will feature two series from Nessim, Computer Heads and Digital Drawing. Computer Heads was created on the Norpak IPS-2 Telidon computer systems during Nessim’s artist residency at TIME Video Information Services department from 1982 to 1983. These works were later printed on
Cibachromes, a large film format which was discontinued in 2012. Digital Drawings were created on Nessim’s Mac Plus Computer from 1985 to 1988. Produced at a time when digital color printing was not possible, these inventive drawings were printed in black and white on archival paper, then manually colored with pastel.
Today, generative digital processes are accepted as painterly in their own right, as sophisticated tools with which to unpack humans’ relationship to intelligent machinery. Barbara Nessim is a trailblazer who has paved the way for generations of artists who are curious about what the computer has to say about art, and about themselves.
In recognition of Nessim’s impact on digital art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) acquired two of Nessim’s early digital artworks for their permanent collection and will be exhibited in their group show Digital Witness: Revolutions in Design, Photography, and Film from November 2024 to July 2025. In addition, Nessim’s survey solo show will be exhibited at DePaul Art Museum from March to August 2026. Other institutions Nessim has shown at
include the Louvre, The Whitney Museum, The Cooper Hewitt Museum, The Smithsonian Institute and The Norman Rockwell Museum. Notable solo exhibitions include London’s Victoria & Albert Museum (2013), Bard Graduate Center Gallery (2015), Malin Gallery (2021), and Derek Eller Gallery (2023).
Her work has graced the covers of Time, Rolling Stone, and The New York Times Magazine among others. Honors include the Pratt Lifetime Achievement Award (2015) and induction into the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame (2020). The show will be accompanied with a catalog.