Phyllis Baldino

Phyllis Baldino (born 1956) is an American visual artist whose art engages in a conceptual practice that merges performance art, video art, sculpture, and installation in an exploration of human perception. Her single-channel videos are distributed by Electronic Arts Intermix in New York, NY. She has taught at New York University, and conducted workshops at the Royal Danish Academy in Copenhagen, Denmark; the Malmö Art Academy in Sweden; and the Statens Kunstakademi in Oslo, Norway.

She has given lectures throughout the U.S. at major institutions, including Rhode Island School of Design in Providence; Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York; Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Omaha, Nebraska; Parsons The New School in New York; the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois; and Art in General, New York.

In 2001 and 1996, Baldino was a finalist for an international media / art award at the Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe / Sudwestrundfunk and International Video Arts Award (respectively) in Baden-Baden. In 2011 and 1999, she was an Artist-in-Residence at the Wexner Center for the Arts, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio; and in 2005, at the Experimental Television Center, Newark Valley, NY. She has received grants from the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), Jerome Foundation, Art Matters Inc., and the California Community Foundation.

Work Baldino explores the intangible boundaries between the material and metaphysical world by mounting large-scale video installations, which address perception, memory, and scientific phenomena. Ironically approaching the medium of video, her topics include quantum physics, parallel universes, nano-technology, and fuzzy logic. In In the Present (1996), Baldino was inspired by William James' temporal definition of the present, which can only occur in a span of time ranging from three to 12 seconds. Within this definition, Baldino ties time to perception by offering 50 discrete experiences of information in the present time – with videos ranging in time from three to 12 seconds each – but using the viewer's memory to account for the links between the videos.

Baldino's 2011 video Suitcase / Not Suitcase / Suitcase, is an excerpt from her 1993 "Gray Area" series that was shown in Times Square on the MTV Screen on April 13–19, 2011, for the 40th Anniversary of Electronic Arts Intermix, New York. During the presentation, Baldino walked anonymously through the square with the suitcase. In 2023, selections from Baldino’s “Gray Area” series were included in the exhibition Perpetual Screw, focusing on the representation of tools in visual arts, at International Objects, Brooklyn, displayed alongside the objects depicted in her videos.

Exhibitions Baldino has had solo exhibitions at Lauren Wittels Gallery, New York (1995, 1996); Thomas Nordanstad Gallery, New York (1996); Pierogi, Brooklyn (2001); Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati (2001); Threewalls, Chicago (2005); Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio (2011); Studio 10, Brooklyn (2013).

She has participated in group exhibitions at a number of international institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Dia Center for the Arts, New York; Guggenheim Museum Soho, New York; P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, New York; Air de Paris, Nice; Four Walls, New York; Los Angeles Center for Photographic Studies; and Independent Art Space, London.

Screenings and Festivals Her work has also been included in numerous national and international film and video festivals, including the Impakt Festival (2002, 2001, 1999), the New York Video Festival (2002), the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen (2001), media_city seoul (2000), the World Wide Video Festival (2000, 1998, 1996), Documentary Fortnight (2006), Oberhausen Film Festival (2012), Videoformes (2018, 2020, 2021) and Prismatic Ground (closing night, 2022).

Select Videography

+ Multi-Channel Video Installations Year Title Length 1994 April 1994: The Gray Band (5-channel) various 1996 In the Present (2-channel) 13 min. 1998 Nano-cadabra (4-channel) 5:08 min. 1999 Color without Color (15-channel) 18:50 min. 2001 16 minutes lost (2-channel) 16 min. 2002 about symmetry symmetry about (2-channel) various 2005 Out of Focus Universes (4-channel) various 2006 Mars/Rome/NY De La Warr (2-channel) various 2013–2016 Nothing from the Future (9-channel) 27:23 min. 2019 u_n_d_e_r_w_a_t_e_r (3-channel) 6:38 min.

+ Single-Channel Videos Year Title Length 1993-94 Gray Area Series (21 pieces) various 1993 Venice in Berlin in Venice 5:35 min. 1994 Same Shoes 14:11 min. 1994-96 Unknown Series (excerpts) 25 min. 2000 Room 1503 in a row 6:05 min. 2003 ParaUniVersesVersesVerses various 2003 BALDINO-NEUTRINO 80:51 min. 2006-10 Out of Focus Everything Series (40 pieces) various 2010-11 Absence is Present Series (4 pieces) various 2011 Battleship Potemkin: Father & Son 6:47 min 2011 Monet’s Atelier 5:35 min. 2011 Suitcase/Not Suitcase/Suitcase 2:43 min. 2011 Spamhead 11:36 min. 2011 Absence is Present: MayJuneJuly various 2017 Now is Here 18:58 min. 2020 run the gamut 2:56 min.

Selected bibliography Arning, Bill. "Phyllis Baldino, ‘In the Present,'" Time Out, December 12–19, 1996: 41.

Kandel, Susan. “Timing,” Los Angeles Times, February 3, 1994.

Molon, Dominic. Sympathy for the Devil: Art and Rock and Roll Since 1967, Chicago: Museum of Contemporary Art, 2007.

Myers-Schecter, Jessica. “Quantum/Conceptual: Phyllis Baldino Explores Scientific Phenomenon,” Fringe Underground, 2006.

Obermark, Peter. “Baldino Films Explore Human Perceptions,” Cincinnati Enquirer (July 15, 2001).

Schmerler, Sarah. “Phyllis Baldino, ‘Nano-cadabra,’” Time Out (March 4–11, 1999): 180.

Smith, Roberta. “The Resurging Video, Reclaimed and Reoriented,” New York Times, February 21, 1997: C23.

Spaid, Sue. “Phyllis Baldino, ‘Nano-cadabra,’” art/text, no. 66 (August–October 1999): 94-95.

Williams, Gregory. Phyllis Baldino at Pierogi, Artforum, no.9 (May 2001): 179.