Christy Rupp is an American artist and activist. She lives and works in New York City and the Hudson Valley in New York. Her work is inspired by the study of animal behavior. She is one of a group of early eco-artists concerned with urban ecology and our perceptions of nature. Her work has been shown extensively at galleries and museums.
Early career
As a resident of lower Manhattan in the late 1970s she exhibited in early artist run spaces including Exit Art, 3 Mercer Street Store,, P.A.D.D., Artmakers, Ventana. Her work appeared in early publications of The Soho News, East Village Eye,, World War 3 Illustrated, and Bomb Magazine. The first publicly visible work was "The Rat Patrol," which was an outdoor postor project of a life-size rat pasted where garbage accumulated, pointing out the fact the city is a living ecosystem with a delicate balance. "Surely a photograph of a rat borrowed from the NYC Health Department files and mechanically reproduced is not a creation of artistic imagination...it would be unthinkable to see the picture on exhibition in a museum." Douglas Crimp.
Mid-career and recent work
In the mid 1980s, Rupp turned her attention to global ecological struggles, such as agribusiness and water contamination. One example being the "Watershed Glassware" set of glasses for drinking tap water, featuring printed images of "perfectly harmless" organisms like Giardia, Cryptosporidium, and Fluoride. She began to make public art works including “Social Progress,” a commission for the Public Art Fund. Recent works include sculptures of fake ivory and its association with commercial arms trade and oil extraction. In a statement, the artist explains that her work is less about animals than it is concerned with our attitudes towards habitat. Other recent works include the series "Extinct Birds Previously Consumed by Humans," that was shown at the Museum of Art and Design's exhibition, "." Rupp received the Creating a Living Legacy Award from the Joan Mitchell Foundation in 2015 and the Anonymous Was a Woman Award in 2010.
"American Dreamers: Reality and Imagination in Contemporary American Art," Bartholmew Bland, Franziska Nori, The Center for Contemporary Strozzina, Florence, 2012
"Talk About Street Art," Jerome Catz, Flammarion, 2014
"Undermining: A Wild Ride Through Land Use, Politics, and Art in the Changing West," Lucy Lippard, The New Press, 2014
“Carbon Mostly,” Christy Rupp, , 2015
"A Book About Colab" Edited by Max Schumann, Printed Matter, 2016
"Exit Art: Unfinished Memories: 30 Years of Exit Art," Susan Harris, Mary Staniszewski, Papo Colo, Holland Cotter, Steidl, 2016
Awards
Creating a Living Legacy, Joan Mitchell Foundation 2015
Anonymous Was A Woman Foundation 2010
National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships 1984, 1986
