Travis Boyer (born 1979, Fort Worth, Texas) received his MFA from Bard College in 2012. Boyer’s practice employs a range of media and methods: from painting, textile, sculpture, cyanotypes and video, to idiosyncratic collaborative projects. While diverse in form, this body of work is fundamentally grounded in performance. By drawing structure from familiar contexts (such as craft workshops, drinking games, and group fitness), Boyerʼs performative works dissolve the barriers separating the private and the public, the intimate and the unknown. In accessible, interactive performances such as Indigo Dye Vat, Guacamole, Home Tour and Slurp Shot, Boyer unpacks the social geometry of participants and medium. As Boyer explains: “...it is about the activity being really legible in such a way that you as a participant can take it or leave it, project onto it or ignore it.”
Boyer has exhibited internationally at museums and institutions including The Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; The New Museum, New York; Kunstverein, Amsterdam, Holland; The Goethe Institute, New York; High Desert Test Sites, Joshua Tree, California, SOMA Arts, San Francisco; CAMH, Houston; Johannes Vogt Gallery, New York; Participant Inc., New York; Dumbo Arts Center, New York; Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York, as well as Galleria Glance, Torino, Italy and Piso 51, Mexico City, Mexico, among others. He was among the first artists awarded the Fire Island Artist Residency. Boyer has been invited as guest lecturer and performer at Yale University's MFA program, CCA, Oakland, CA, and RISD, Providence, RI. Boyer lives and works in New York City.
