Siebren Versteeg writes computer programs that pull imagery from the Internet based upon subjects or criteria that he specifies. The images then appear on monitors within the gallery space. Although Versteeg determines the types of things that might appear on the monitors, the artwork—like the Internet it draws from—is constantly growing and changing. He has noted, “As the nature of the images presented by the work is random, the artist assumes both all and no responsibility for their presence and content.” This tension between creative control and the endless stream of images is of particular interest to the artist.
Siebren Versteeg was born in 1971 in New Haven, Connecticut. He received a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago. He also studied at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine and the School of Visual Arts, New York. He has had solo exhibitions at the Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita, Kansas; the Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio; Max Protetch Gallery, New York; Bellwether Gallery, New York; Ten in One Gallery, New York; Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago; and 1R Gallery, Chicago. His work has been exhibited in group shows at the Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, DC; Contemporary Museum, Baltimore, Maryland; Krannert Art Museum, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois; the Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia; the National Museum of Art, Czech Republic; and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. Versteeg lives and works in New York.
