Charles Atlas - Life’s a beach • Studio STUK

Charles Atlas (°1949) is an American artist and filmmaker who has lived and worked in New York City since the early 1970s. As a pioneering figure in film and video, he has over the past four decades continuously extended the limits of his medium, forging new territory in a far-reaching range of genres, stylistic approaches, and techniques. Throughout his production, the artist has consistently fostered collaborative relationships, working intimately with such artists and performers as Leigh Bowery, Michael Clark, Douglas Dunn, Marina Abramovic, Yvonne Rainer, Mika Tajima/New Humans, Antony and the Johnsons, and most notably Merce Cunningham, for whom he served as in-house videographer from the early 1970s through 1983; their close working relationship continued until Cunningham’s death in 2009. Atlas’ work is included in the permanent collections of major institutions worldwide, and has been presented in numerous solo exhibitions, most recently in Pioneer Works, Brooklyn; Fondazione ICA Milaan; The Kitchen, New York; the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York; De Hallen, Haarlem; Bloomberg SPACE, Londen; en het Museum of Modern Art, New York. In 017, Atlas won the Special Mention Award at the 57th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennial with The Tyranny of Consciousness.