Petra Cortright’s core practice is the creation and distribution of digital and physical images using consumer or corporate softwares. She became renowned for making self-portrait videos that use her computer’s webcam and default effects tools, which she would then upload to YouTube and caption with spam text. Cortright’s paintings on aluminum, linen, paper, or acrylic are created in Photoshop using painting software and appropriated images, icons, and marks. The digital files are endlessly modifiable, but at a “decisive moment” they are translated into two-dimensional objects. They become finite, yet their range of motifs and marks, and their disorienting perspectives and dimensions suggest dynamic change.

Petra Cortright (Santa Barbara, CA, 1986) lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. She studied Fine Arts at Parsons School of Design, The New School, New York, NY (2008), and at the California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA (2004).

Exhibitions include: Petra Cortright: “sapphire cinnamon viper fairy,” Palm Springs Art Musum, CA (solo) (2022-2023); “Search Engines,” MoMA, New York, NY (2021-2023); “.paint,” MCA, Chicago, IL (2020); “The Body Electric,” Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN, toured to the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA, and Miami Dade College Galleries of Art + Design, FL (2019-2021); “Dirty Protest: Selections from the Hammer,” Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; “Now Playing: Video 1999-2019,” Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, AZ; “Hate Speech: Aggression and Imitation,” Künstlerhaus, Halle für Kunst & Medien, Graz, Austria (all 2019): “I Was Raised On the Internet,” MCA, Chicago, IL (2018); “RUNNING NEO-GEO GAMES UNDER MAME,” City Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand (solo) (2017); “Electronic Superhighway,” Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK (2016); and “NIKI, LUCY, LOLA, VIOLA,” Depart Foundation, Los Angeles, CA (solo)(2015).

Public projects have included commissions from Frank Gehry Partners, LLP; Midnight Moment, Times Square Arts, New York, NY; Art on theMART, Chicago, IL (all 2019); and SketchedSpace in Seoul, South Korea (2018.)

Cortright’s works are in the permanent collections of The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Péréz Museum, Miami; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; MOCA Los Angeles; Rhizome’s Net Art Anthology; MOTI, Breda, in collaboration with Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; MCA Chicago; Kadist Foundation, Paris, San Francisco; BAMPFA, Berkeley, CA; San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose; MOCA Los Angeles; and Rhizome’s Net Art Anthology, New York.

• CV

• Publications

• Izzo, Trevor. “Video Store.” Screenslate. 22 Feb. 2023. Web.
• Knoblauch, Loring."Petra Cortright, 'ultra angel wing absolute' @Foxy Production." Collector Daily. 1 Feb. 2022. Web.
• Ripps Schaming, Corinna and Olga Dekalo. ACE: art on sports, promise, and selfhood. Albany: University Art Museum, 2019: 11.
• Sterling, Bruce. "The Ephemera Mine." Rhizome. 1 Mar. 2018. Web.
• "Goings On About Town: Petra Cortright." The New Yorker. 2 Oct. 2017: 6.
• Cascone, Sarah. "Here Is Every Single New York Gallery Show That You Need to (Somehow) See This September." Artnet. 7 Sept. 2017. Web.
• Lesser, Casey and Scott Indrisek. "The 15 New York Shows You Need to See This September." Artsy Magazine. 30 Aug. 2017. Web.
• Mindlin, Valerie. “Petra Cortright”, Artforum. Oct. 2016. Web.
• Jansen, Charlotte. “Petra Cortright Is the Monet of the 21st Century”. Artsy. 13 May 2016. Web.
• Goulder, Iona. “Petra Cortright on the Gentrification of the Internet.” Amuse. 4 April 2016. Web.
• McGarry, Kevin. "Petra Cortright's Desktop Dolls." New York Times Style Magazine. 9 July 2015: Web.
• Zhong, Fan. "Art 2.0." W Magazine. 7 May 2015. Web.
• Ding, Chinnie. "Petra Cortright." Artforum picks. 20 Feb. 2015. Web.
• Wyma, Chloe. "Offline: The Inscrutable Cheeriness of Petra Cortright." ARTinfo. 12 Feb. 2015. Web.
• Horn. Dottir. "All the Things She Said." aqnb. 29 Oct. 2014. Web.
• Cortright, Petra. “In Conversation: Petra Cortright with Courtney Malick.” SFAQ Issue 16. May-July 2014: 66–71.
• Milliken, Mary. “For World Cup, the beautiful game plays out on museum walls.” Reuters. 29 Jan. 2014. Web.
• Williams, Maxwell. “On View | For Petra Cortright, the Web Is the Ultimate Canvas.” The New York Times Style Magazine. 8 Nov. 2013 Web.
• Schildhause, Chloe. "Petra Cortright, A Demonstration in Artistic Onus." Flaunt Magazine. 25 Oct. 2013.
• Urguhart, Robert. “The Passion Of Petra Cortright.” the creators project. 22 Oct. 2013. Web.
• Sifferlin, Alexandra. “Digital Art Clicks on the Auction Block.” TIME. 21 Oct. 2013.
• Ugelvig, Jeppe. “Frieze London | Interview with Petra Cortright.” Dis Magazine. 22 Oct. 2013. Web.
• Maloney, Jennifer. “Auction House Enters the Digital Age.” The Wall Street Journal. 23 Sept. 2013. Web.
• Thompson, Clive. “Vision Quest | Doug Aitkens tech-fueled, all-night, glow-in-the-dark, cross-country, pop-art train ride.” Wired. Aug. 2013. Web.
• Sterling, Bruce. “Data Mine: Bruce Sterling on Petra Cortright’s HELL_TREE, 2012.” Artforum 50th Anniversary Issue. Sept. 2012. Web.
• Glover, Ian. “Artist Profie: Petra Cortright.” Rhizome. 7 Sept. 2011. Web.