Marc Bridger (b. 1971, United States) received a B.F.A. in studio art from The University of South Florida (USF) in 2015. Bridger graduated with a Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) in Painting from Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in August 2020.
Elevate and Dab Art are currently exhibiting Bridger's work (Artsy: Art in the Time of Corona). Relatedly, group exhibitions include participatory creation of Reciprocidad Andina—an art project for Miami's Creative Time Summit. 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. Bridger worked in various technology roles for twenty years, including the ownership of a business providing design, web, and technical support. The 2008 economic recession initiated a career transition into the arts, while Bridger's technological expertise continues to inform his art practice and discourse. Bridger's paintings interrogate the propagandistic recursion within the hyperreal metaverse where precarious environmental, social, and political conditions subjugate humanity via a 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. Bridger donated the assets 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. Last 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.