Edrex Fontanilla
Edrex Fontanilla is a new media artist whose work joins sculptural and computational methods to examine perception, materiality, and time. For twenty years he has built objects that sit between sculpture and projection, between writing and pattern, and between place and liminal space — and invited viewers to watch their own perception decide.
His work has been shown internationally — including a juried selection at SIGGRAPH's "Slow Art" exhibition, a featured installation at TechFest Mumbai, a solo exhibition at the Nepal Art Council in Kathmandu, and, over the past five years, a continuous touring body of work at five New York museums and institutional galleries. He trained at Brown University (B.A. Visual Art; M.A. Computer Music and Multimedia Composition; M.F.A. Literary Arts, Writing Digital Media). He began exhibiting in 2001.
Current & Forthcoming
Liminal Luminance — Brown University, Granoff Center for the Creative Arts, Providence, RI. With Robert Goldschmidt. Opening August 2026.
Changing Landscapes: Research and Fieldwork — Hewitt Gallery of Art, Marymount Manhattan College, NYC. Curated by Hallie Cohen with Adrienne Baxter Bell and Beth Shipley. With Sarah Nelson Wright.
Solo Exhibitions
Evanescence — Nepal Art Council National Art Gallery, Kathmandu, Nepal
Erosion — Sierra Arts Gallery, Reno, NV. Juried by the Sierra Arts Committee. With Robert Goldschmidt.
Selected Exhibitions
Shifting Sands — Water Stories, BioBAT Art Space, Brooklyn Army Terminal, NYC. Curated by Elena Soterakis. With Sarah Nelson Wright.
Tomorrow's Sea — ALTER ECO, Arsenal Gallery, NYC Parks, Central Park, NYC. Curated by Ash Cortes. With Sarah Nelson Wright.
Shifting Sands — Vulnerable Landscapes, Staten Island Museum, NYC. Curated by Rylee Eterginoso. With Sarah Nelson Wright.
Tomorrow's Sea (premiere) — Art at the BlueLine, South Street Seaport, NYC. Produced by the Waterfront Alliance with the South Street Seaport Museum. With Sarah Nelson Wright.
Listening to Dutch Kills — SWIM Coalition Public Art Project, Queens, NY. With Sarah Nelson Wright and Nathan Kensinger.
Juried exhibition, Loading Dock Gallery, Lowell, MA — Acquaintance prints
Open Engagement, Queens Museum, NYC — new VR work on the Bronx Kill, with Sarah Nelson Wright
"Wondering, Wandering" — Sierra Arts Gallery, Reno, NV. With Robert Goldschmidt.
The Ethical Viewer: Perceptual Fog — Cherry Creek Arts Festival, Denver, CO. Arrow Five Years Out commission; entered Arrow's permanent collection.
Acquaintance [He] and [She] — Woven Heritage International Miniature Printmaking Exhibition, 2017 Dubai Art Week, UAE. Under the patronage of Her Excellency Sheikha Lubna Al Qasimi; permanent collection, Zayed University.
Tempest, Overlooked 2.0 — Digitalia (national juried exhibition, selected from 900+ entries), Barrett Art Center, Poughkeepsie, NY. With Robert Goldschmidt.
Hidden Vistas — Chance Ecologies: Queens, Queens Museum, NYC. Curated by Catherine Grau and Nathan Kensinger. With Sarah Nelson Wright.
Over the River, presented live as "Virtual Reality, Empathy, and Place" — Chance Ecologies: Newtown Creek, Queens, NY
Over the River — Radiator Gallery, Long Island City, NY. With Sarah Nelson Wright.
Writhe — LIC Arts Open, Reis Studios, Queens, NY. With Robert Goldschmidt.
Overlooked 2.0 — TechFest 2014, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, India. Featured installation; invited speaker.
Sear — Granoff Center for the Creative Arts, Providence, RI
Offset — Granoff Center for the Creative Arts, Providence, RI
Lingua Ignota — Pixilerations v.6 (premiere), Providence, RI; performed at ELO: Archive & Innovate, 2010. With Samantha Gorman and Danny Cannizzaro.
S[tr]eam — SIGGRAPH 2008 "Slow Art" (juried), Los Angeles, CA; also Pixilerations v.5, Providence, RI. With Robert Goldschmidt.
Overlooked — Pixilerations v.2 (2005); later the 10th Biennial Symposium on Arts & Technology, the Tampa Museum of Art, the International Computer Music Conference, and the Digital Humanities Summer Institute (Canada)
Cascade — Pixilerations v.3 (2006); Torrent — Pixilerations v.4 (2007). With Robert Goldschmidt.
c4b3r@r7$ — Boston Cyberarts Festival, Boston, MA. With Ian Budish.
Rope & Wood — Boston Cyberarts Festival, Boston, MA
Immortek (performance) — E-Fest, Brown University, Providence, RI
Sound Capsule — MMLab Show, Brown University, Providence, RI
B!mboo — David Winton Bell Gallery, Providence, RI. With Jasper Speicher and Mark Domino.
Siliconic Harmonica — Manhasset Mill, Providence, RI
Brain Pick — Knight Campus Art Gallery, CCRI, Warwick, RI. With Paul Badger.
All the News That's Fit To… — David Winton Bell Gallery, Providence, RI. With Jasper Speicher.
Panels, Talks & Symposia
Exhibiting-artists panel — Currents of Change: A Water Stories Symposium, BioBAT Art Space, NYC. With Sarah Nelson Wright, Nathan Kensinger, Keren Anavy, Christopher Lin, DB Lampman, and Ranjit Bhatnagar.
Artist in Conversation — ALTER ECO, Arsenal Gallery, Central Park, NYC
"Embodied Landscapes: Hidden Vistas + Tomorrow's Sea" — New Media Caucus Symposium (Future Bodies), VR Projects track, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA. With Sarah Nelson Wright.
Climate Art & Climate Science panel — Climate Week NYC, aboard tall ship Wavertree, South Street Seaport Museum, NYC. With Mary Mattingly, Matthew López-Jensen, Sarah Nelson Wright, and Kendra Krueger; moderated by Cortney Koenig Worrall (Waterfront Alliance).
"Artists and Post-Industrial Urban Wilderness" — UnionDocs Center for Documentary Art, Brooklyn, NY
"Hidden Vistas: Empathy and Place in Virtual Reality Installations" — Chance Ecologies: Queens Symposium, Queens Museum, NYC
"Sear: A New Media Text Delivery System" — 14th Biennial Symposium on Arts & Technology, Connecticut College, New London, CT
Invited speaker — TechFest 2014, IIT Bombay, Mumbai, India
"Lingua Ignota" — Third Language Creation Conference, Brown University, Providence, RI. With Samantha Gorman.
"Mutable Sculpture" — 11th Biennial Symposium on Arts & Technology, Ammerman Center, Connecticut College
Publications
Fontanilla, E., Juszczak, M., & Messina, R. "Emergence of Manichean Political Rhetoric — Theoretical Modeling of Predictive Frameworks." International Journal of Pedagogy, Innovation and New Technologies, 7(2), 78–87. DOI: 10.5604/01.3001.0014.6875.
Silton, N.R., Fontanilla, E., Femia, M., & Rouse, K. "Employing Disability Simulations and Preliminary Virtual Reality Technology to Foster Cognitive and Affective Empathy towards Individuals with Disabilities." In N. Silton (Ed.), Scientific Concepts behind Happiness, Kindness and Empathy in Contemporary Society. IGI Global.
Fontanilla, E., & Wright, S.N. "Empathy for Place." Mediapolis: A Journal of Cities and Culture.
Fontanilla, E. "Sear: A New Media Text Delivery System." 14th Biennial Symposium on Arts & Technology Proceedings, Connecticut College.
Collections
Arrow — The Ethical Viewer: Perceptual Fog (permanent collection, via the Five Years Out Art Commission)
Zayed University, UAE — Acquaintance [He] and [She] (permanent collection)
Awards, Grants & Residencies
St. John's University Research Infrastructure Grant
St. John's University Research Infrastructure Grant
Getting to Zero in Dutch Kills Public Art Grant
Sierra Arts Gallery Grant
Arrow Five Years Out Art Commission ($5,000, international competition, 100+ entries)
Queens Museum Studio in the Park Residency
Andrew G. Mellon Grant
Selected Press
NBC New York — "Things to do in NYC: check out this free art exhibit about water" (Water Stories, Brooklyn Army Terminal)
Art Spiel — "Art and Technology NYC Exhibitions, November 2024"
City Life Org — "Free Art Exhibit 'Alter Eco' on Display at Arsenal Gallery"
New Media Caucus — "Tomorrow's Sea at ALTER ECO: Edrex Fontanilla and Sarah Nelson Wright"
Marymount Manhattan College News — "MMC Professor Lays Bare the Ravishes of Climate Change in New Exhibit" (Shifting Sands)
Staten Island Museum — Vulnerable Landscapes press release and coverage
Waterfront Alliance — "Compelling Art Exhibition Illustrates Flood Risk at the BlueLine" (Tomorrow's Sea premiere)
Chance Ecologies era, ~20 press hits including Untapped Cities (five articles), Curbed NY, Gothamist, Urban Omnibus, Art F City, Queens Courier, Miami Rail, and Streetnotes
Education
M.F.A., Literary Arts (Writing Digital Media), Brown University, 2012
M.A., Computer Music and Multimedia Composition, Brown University, 2002
B.A., Visual Art with Honors, Brown University, 2000