Christopher Sperandio is an American artist known for his collaborative work with British artist Simon Grennan.

Biography

Sperandio was born in Kingwood, West Virginia

Kingwood, West Virginia

Kingwood is a town in and the county seat of Preston County, West Virginia, United States, and is part of the Pittsburgh DMA. Kingwood was founded in 1815...

, West Virginia

West Virginia

West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...

 and attended West Virginia University

West Virginia University

West Virginia University is a public research university in Morgantown, West Virginia, USA. Other campuses include: West Virginia University at Parkersburg in Parkersburg; West Virginia University Institute of Technology in Montgomery; Potomac State College of West Virginia University in Keyser;...

, receiving his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Printmaking in 1987. He pursued graduate coursework at the University of Illinois at Chicago

University of Illinois at Chicago

The University of Illinois at Chicago, or UIC, is a state-funded public research university located in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its campus is in the Near West Side community area, near the Chicago Loop...

 receiving a Master of Fine Arts in painting in 1991. Both Grennan and Sperandio were classmates of Tom Friedman

Tom Friedman

Tom Friedman may refer to:*Tom Friedman , American sculptor*Thomas Friedman, journalist and author-See also:*Thomas Freeman...

. Sperandio is an Assistant Professor at Rice University

Rice University

William Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University or Rice, is a private research university located on a heavily wooded campus in Houston, Texas, United States...

 in the School of Visual and Dramatic Arts.

Artworks

The "We got it!" bar was the result of the artists collaboration with the unionized workforce of a suburban Chicago chocolate factory for Sculpture Chicago's Culture in Action exhibition.

Grennan and Sperandio were commissioned to make new work for the international contemporary art survey Traffic

Traffic (art exhibition)

Traffic is the title of a group exhibition of contemporary art that took place at CAPC musée d'art contemporain de Bordeaux, France, through February and March, 1996...

, curated by Nicolas Bourriaud

Nicolas Bourriaud

Nicolas Bourriaud is a French curator and art critic. He co-founded, and from 1999 to 2006 was co-director of the Palais de Tokyo, Paris together with Jerôme Sans. He was also founder and director of the contemporary art magazine Documents sur l'art , and correspondent in Paris for Flash Art from...

, and their works have often been exhibited with other "Relational Art

Relational Art

Relational art or relational aesthetics is a mode or tendency in fine art practice originally observed and highlighted by French art critic Nicolas Bourriaud...

" practitioners, such as Rirkrit Tiravanija

Rirkrit Tiravanija

Rirkrit Tiravanija is a contemporary artist residing in New York. He was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1961. His installations often take the form of stages or rooms for sharing meals, cooking, reading or playing music; architecture or structures for living and socializing are a core element...

 and Maurizio Cattelan

Maurizio Cattelan

Maurizio Cattelan is an Italian artist based in New York. He is known for his satirical sculptures, particularly La Nona Ora , depicting the Pope John Paul II struck down by a meteorite....

.

Grennan and Sperandio have produced 18 comic books for museums with Fantagraphics Books

Fantagraphics Books

Fantagraphics Books is an American publisher of alternative comics, classic comic strip anthologies, magazines, graphic novels, and the adult-oriented Eros Comix imprint...

, DC Comics

DC Comics

DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...

 and under their own imprint Kartoon Kings. Typical of these is the "Invisible City" project for the Public Art Fund and "Modern Masters" produced for PS1/MoMA

Moma

Moma may refer to:* Moma , an owlet moth genus* Moma Airport, a Russian public airport* Moma District, Nampula, Mozambique* Moma River, a right tributary of the Indigirka River* Google Moma, the Google corporate intranet...

. Kartoon Kings: The Graphic Work of Simon Grennan and Christopher Sperandio, a monograph collecting images and information on their collaborative practice was published in 2007.

Sperandio is credited as Creator and Executive Producer of ARTSTAR, an eight-part unscripted television series set in the New York art world
of Deitch Projects

Deitch Projects

Deitch Projects was a contemporary art gallery in New York City founded by Jeffrey Deitch.-History:Since opening with a performance by Vanessa Beecroft in February 1996, the gallery has presented nearly one hundred and eighteen solo exhibitions and projects, ten thematic exhibitions, and a few...

 airing on American television (Voom

Voom

Voom HD Networks was a group of 15 original high-definition television channels owned by Rainbow Media, a subsidiary of Cablevision. The channels were produced in true High Definition with Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound and were the largest suite of HD channels in the world...

) in 2006.

External links

• Kartoon Kings - Official web site of Simon Grennan and Christopher Sperandio