Otis Kriegel is a mixed-media artist focused upon the abstraction of social interaction and society which he communicates through public art, photography, video and film. In 2001 he founded the New York based public art collective, Illegal Art, whose interactive pieces have been installed throughout the United States, South America, Europe and The Middle East. The results of their project, Suggestion Box, were published by Chronicle Books (Suggestion, August 2005). Kriegel’s public art and mixed media work have been featured by such media outlets as National Public Radio, The New York Times, New York Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, The Public Art Review, The Sun Magazine, Dwell Magazine, International Herald Tribune, including three times being featured on the New York Times Op-Ed page (01.01.06; 09.03.07; 12.31.09). Kriegel has presented at 2008 College Art Association Conference as well as University of New Hampshire at Durham, The New School University, and was part of a visual arts exhibition sponsored by the Ford Foundation called, “Difficult Dialogues” at Clark University in Worchester, Massachusetts. His work has been published in numerous catalogs throughout the United States and Europe. Kriegel received an Artist’s Grant to attend the Vermont Studio Center in July, 2010, was the 2010 Visiting Artist at Webb School in Knoxville, Tennessee, a resident at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts in July, 2011, an artist-in-residence at the 2013 SXSW Festival and for the summer of 2014 was accepted as an artist-in-residence at the Wild Acres Retreat in North Carolina. In 2014 Illegal Art’s project, “What Color Are You?” was a featured part of Passport, curated by The New Yorker Promotions and sponsored by Delta Airlines.  Most recently Otis was included in the 2015 group exhibition, All Together Different: A Survey of Artists Living and Working on the Lower East Side and in 2016 his work was featured at SXSL Festival on the South Lawn of The White House.

Otis continues to install and perform participatory based-public art projects and other multi-media work in the New York City area and beyond. He currently resides in Berlin, Germany with his wife and daughter.

Otis also uses his knowledge of participatory-based public art and communication to create campaigns, public events to encourage participation, and slogans for a number of different companies and organizations such as Foundation Rwanda, Five Acre Farms, Ito-En Tea, Campari/SKYY Vodka, SXSW Festivals, TMP Worldwide, Comet Skateboards, Gooder Companies and Teak Interactive.

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