maxk [at] unt [dot] edu
max [at] wonderblimp [dot] com
tel: +1.917.518.6873
fax:+1.940.565.4717

School of Visual Arts, office. 229
University of North Texas
School of Visual Arts
P.O. Box 305100
Denton, TX. USA 76203

CURRICULUM VITAE, FALL 2004
http://www.wonderblimp.com/04 {primary portfolio site}
http://www.wonderblimp.com

ARTIST STATEMENT
Max Kazemzadeh is an electronic media artist that is interested in human interaction in response to his constructed interfaces. His work confronts and then strategically engages users to form a dialog with others through his custom interactive systems. Many of his works distill human interaction to the two basic forms of cooperation and/or competition. While these works explore iconography that influence users to convert neutral spaces into cooperative or competitive spaces, they also serve to undermine our expectations in regards to context, representation, meaning, and interactivity. A recent series completed in 2004, and shown in a solo exhibition at Studio 107 in Austin, Texas, explores the internal duality of the artists culture as an American born Iranian-American. The interactive, video, photographic, and installative work explores the western perception of the middle east in regards to the artists own identity. Issues of comfort, security, and the American subconscious emerge as the artist explores his own history, family, and upbringing.
Kazemzadeh received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from The School of Visual Arts at the University of North Texas, where he studied in the conceptual Painting and Drawing program with Vernon Fisher, Annette Lawrence, Vincent Falsetta, Stan Baden, and Ed Blackburn. He moved to New York City and attended Hunter College for one year to study closely with Robert Morris, Juan Sanchez, and Susan Crile. Max went on to receive a Masters of Fine Arts from The Design and Technology Program at Parsons School of Design in the NewSchool University. There he studied with the art technology gurus Sawad Brooks, Eric Zimmerman, Stuart Ziff, and Mark Stafford, and Zhan-Ga Brinkman. While in school and after graduating he worked as an interaction/visual/motion designer for PGS Advertising[Dallas,TX], Digital Media Design Group Inc.[NY,NY], R/GA Interactive[NY,NY] (www.rga.com), and went on to found his own company called Wonderblimp Interactive[NY,NY] – doing projects for clients like: Supernova[NY,NY] (www.supernova.com), New York Institute of Tehcnology[NY,NY] (www.nyit.edu), UNICEF[NY,NY] (www.unicef.org), Kay’s Naturals[NY,NY] (www.kaysnaturals.com). During this time he also taught as an adjunct faculty member at Pratt University, and served numerous times as a visiting panelist and lecturer at Parsons School of Design (dt.parsons.edu). Kazemzadeh recently accepted a position as an Assistant (Tenure-Track) Professor of Electronic Media Art in The School of Visual Arts at The University of North Texas (www.sova.unt.edu). He exhibits his work internationally, with an upcoming solo exhibition this summer (2005) in Beijing's well known contemporary art district 798 at the Sanban Gallery and the 798 Space Gallery.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2005
Limner Gallery, Phoenicia, NY, "Digital Art Extravaganza" (International Group Exhibition), May 5 - 29 (accepted/upcoming)
LA Center for Digital Art (LACDA), Los Angeles, CA, (International Group Exhibition) – August (upcoming)
Ars Electronica, Linz, Austria, (International Exhibition) – September-January (upcoming)
Plano Art Center, Plano, TX, (National Juried Exhibition) - May 3-June3 (accepted/upcoming)
LA Center for Digital Art (LACDA), Los Angeles, CA, “Top 40” (International Juried Exhibition) – March 10-April 2
El Centro College Art Gallery, Dallas, TX, “Fresh Space” (Regional Group Exhibition) – February 6-March 4

2004
El Centro Community College Gallery, Dallas, TX, “(Regional) Pano Art Invitational and Auction” - September 27th-October 24th
Ars Electronica, Linz, Austria, “Timeshift” Conference, “Manual Input Sessions,” August 20th, (assisted collaboration with Golan Levine and Zachary Lieberman on the development of a digital interactive performance)
500X Gallery, Dallas, TX – “Open Show” – April 25 – May 25.
500X Gallery, Dallas, TX – “Expo 2004 (Juried Exhibition)” – Honorable Mention Award – March 1 – April 1.
Methods Gallery (regional), Denton, TX – October 2nd

2003
School of Visual Arts Gallery, University of North Texas, Denton, TX, “Faculty Exhibition,” December

2000
Arnold Aronson Gallery, New York, NY, “Restart,” May 24th through June 13th

1999
Arnold Aronson Gallery, New York, NY, “Lag Pipes Performance” Fall 1999
Parsons Exhibition Gallery, New York, NY - ”Digital Quartet,” April 10th through June 1st (collaborative performance piece)

1998
Bertha and Karl Leubsdorf Art Gallery, New York, NY - “Somebody,” May 16th through June 4th (Performance piece)

1997
Good Bad Art Collective, Denton, TX, “Nothing to see here,” May
500X Gallery, Dallas, TX, “X Select Show,” April

1996
Union Gallery, Denton, TX, Annual Union Gallery Exhibition, February

OTHER UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS
Gray Matters Gallery, Dallas, TX - March, 2005
Fafa Gallery, Beijing, China – Summer 2005
798 Space, Beijing, China – Summer 2005

INVITED LECTURE PRESENTATIONS
Artist Talk – Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China – August, 2005 (upcoming)
Artist Talk - Bei Wei University, Beijing, China – August. 2005 (upcoming)
Artist Talk – El Centro College, Dallas, Texas – "Merging Art with Emerging Technologies" and comments on the artwork "Passage" in the "Fresh Space" Exhibition- Monday, February 28, 2005
Artist Talk- Bei Wei University, Beijing, China – “Competition and Cooperation - Art and Technology and Interactivity in the 21st Century” – August. 2004
Artist Talk – Sanban Gallery, Beijing China – August, 2004
Visiting Critic – Parsons University, New York, NY, Mark Stafford’s MFA Thesis Studio Course - 2003
Artist Talk – Parsons University, New York, NY, Zachary Lieberman’s BFA Motion Graphics Course - 2002
PRADA Kiosk Project Unveiling - Selected to represent R/GA Interactive in Tokyo, Japan to present the R/GA designed Prada Fashion Interactive Kiosk and Cosmetic Boutique in Shinjuku, a section of Tokyo, Japan. 2001

HONORS & AWARDS
Curator, Cora Stafford Art Gallery, "All Information Aside-Art You Can Touch" Denton, TX - 2005
Winner, 500X Honorable Mention Cash Award, Dallas, TX – 2004
Membership, Member of the “Dorkbot” Group at Columbia University, NYC www.dorkbot.org/dorkbotnyc - 2002-present
Winner, UNICEF Award for Creating Motion Graphics for Three Conferences on Children - 2002
Selected, Leadership Award at R/GA Interactive - 2001
Winner, Communication Arts Site of the Day for Design of www.risd.com - 2000
Winner, AIGA Silver Pencil for Prada Kiosk - 2000
Winner, AdWeek Ecommerce Best Designed Site www.ibm.com - 2000
Nominee, Nominated for Summer Residency Program at Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, by School of Visual Arts at the University of North Texas - 1997

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
North Texas Daily, O'Brien, James. 2005. "Gallery displays NT's first interactive art exhibit" – Friday, 25 March
Denton Record Chronicle, 2005. Entertainment Section, "Names in the Arts" - 13 February
North Texas Daily, Fan, Li. 2005. – Friday, 18 January
China Times, 2004. “Electronic Media Artwork by University Professor Max Kazemzadeh,” Monday, 2 August.
Austin Chronicle, Koper, Rachel. 2004. “Target Audience, Loaded Images.” 25 June.
Austin Chronicle, Koper, Rachel. 2004. “Target Audience, Loaded Images.” -article published online - (http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2004-06-25/arts_feature4.html). 25 June
North Texas Daily (Cover Photo and Article), Fan, Li. 2003. “The Art of Teaching” – Friday, vol. 88, Issue XX. 16 January
Parsons Book 2000, Parsons School of Design. 2000. “A See-Saw and A Scoreboard - The
Problems with Competition within an Inherently Cooperative Environment” May
Denton Record Chronicle. McMullan, Dawn. 1997. “Burning Rubber-Kazemzadeh retires traditional themes.” 16 January
Denton Record Chronicle, McMullan, Dawn. 1997. “Throw-away exhibition.” 20 February.
The North Texas Daily, Evans, Marty. 1997. “Rubber becomes fine art.” 16 January.

EDUCATION
MFA Parsons School of Design, NY, NY, 2000
Post BFA Hunter College, NY, NY, 1998
BFA University of North Texas, Denton, TX, 1997

EMPLOYMENT
Assistant Professor of Electronic Media Art – University of North Texas, School of Visual Arts, Denton, TX, 2003-present
Visiting Lecturer in Electronic Media Art – Pratt University, New York/Brooklyn, NY – 2003-present
Adjunct Professor in Electronic Media Art - Pratt University, New York/Brooklyn, NY – 1999-2003
MFA / BFA Visiting Critic and Lecturer in Design and Technology – Parsons School of Design – 2001-2003
Founder/Owner - Wonderblimp Interactive, Brooklyn, NY - 11/01-08/03
Interactive/Visual Designer – R/Greenberg and Assiciates (R/GA Interactive), New York, NY – 02/00-11/02
Interaction/Web Designer – Delirium, Inc, New York, NY – 05/98-02/00
Interaction/Web Designer – Digital Media Design, Inc, New York, NY – 03/97-09/98
Creative Director - PGS Advertising, Dallas, TX – 06/95-03/97

PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES AND DESIGN TOOLS
APPLICATIONS:
Adobe: Photoshop, Illustrator, Imageready, Premier, After Effects, Live Motion
Macromedia: Flash, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Director
General: Quark Express, Maya, 3D Studio Max, Plasma, 3D Studio Max Version 5 Update (Certification Pending, Spring 2003), Digital Imaging Software, Avid, HAL Real-Time Multimedia, Media 100, Windows 95, 00, Millenium, Mac OS, Midi Interfaces, Sound Edit, Fetch, QuickTime VR Authoring
PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES:
Lingo for Director, Lingo for ADB I/O Interface, Flash Action-scripting, Java, Javascript, HTML, DHTML, SQL, CGI Scripting, Interactive C for Handiboard Interface, VRML, XML
GENERAL:
digital imaging, 3-D animation, physical computing, web design, web production, motion-graphics design and production, interactive design, information architecture, digital photography, digital video, photography, painting, drawing, performance art, interactive installation art, fluent in art theory and criticism


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