Marc VanDermeer

Artist Statement

I began making art as an adolescent in Greenwich Village, influenced by abstract expressionist artists like Rauschenberg, Motherwell, and Johns. My mother, an artist, worked with industrial materials, fostering my fascination with unconventional mediums.
I turned to technology-based art in my twenties, drawing from video, film, and photography. I earned a BFA in Film from the Philadelphia College of Art and chose film because of its career potential. My art took a backseat while I built a business and a family.
In 2001, at 48, I was diagnosed with stage-three blood cancer and given five months to five years to live. I closed my business and sought experimental treatment, undergoing a grueling dual stem cell transplant in isolation. During recovery, I rediscovered art, using a digital camera and laptop to explore liminal spaces—train yards, graffiti-filled lots—capturing transition and impermanence.
In 2002, I debuted in Chelsea’s Agora Gallery, one of the first digital art shows in New York. My work continues to evolve through experimentation and layering photography with digital and painted elements. Technology remains central to my practice, though I approach AI with curiosity and caution.
My art reflects my experience of navigating uncertainty and embracing transformation. I work almost entirely with digital art, either painting on an iPad, photographing urban textures, or delving into the intersection of art and algorithmic intelligence, merging digital and generative art, pushing boundaries and known definitions to create striking, data-driven visuals, and ultimately, finding meaning where chaos meets creation.