Marc Bridger (b. 1971, United States) is an exhibiting artist that received a B.F.A. in studio art from The University of South Florida (USF) in 2015. Subsequently, Bridger graduated with a Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) in Painting from Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in August 2020.
Bridger has exhibited in group exhibitions including participatory creation of Reciprocidad Andinaan art project for Miami's Creative Time Summit. Before becoming an artist, Bridger worked in technology roles for twenty years including ownership of a business providing design, web, and technical support. After high-school, Bridger served in the U.S. Navy as an avionics technician that led to writing and design in the airport consulting field. The 2008 economic recession initiated a career transition where Bridger's technological expertise informs his art practice and has become direct subject matter within his work. His paintings interrogate the propagandistic recursion within our hyperreal metaverse. A metaverse where precarious environmental, social, and political conditions subjugate humanity via our commodity driven existence. Last summer, Bridger filmed and documented an adjustable aluminum stretcher-bar system he developed for artists. Subsequently, he published the work as an educational resource and written guide that included a video tutorial with 3D modeling and animations. The assets were donated to the larger art community via FloridaStretchers.org. Bridger completed numerous works throughout the past year, while the latest highlights metaverse absurdity in Pair of Dise (2019-20)—a work presented in his M.F.A.Thesis Exhibition: Metaverse Gaze. In July, Bridger finalized his written M.F.A. thesis: Externalities of the Metaverse Gaze, subsequently graduating in August. Within the thesis, Bridger articulated the conceptual notion of a metaverse artform—an auto-exhibiting emergent amalgam that transcends the digital and physical art object, enfranchising an experience mediated by the device.