NinaJohnson

Rhys Gaetano (b. 1983, New York) received a BFA from the Cooper Union in New York City. He is a founder of the Bruce High Quality Foundation (BHQF). Formed by Gaetano and fellow Cooper Union and Parsons School of Design graduates in 2001, the collective was “created to foster an alternative to everything” and pokes fun at the conventions of art through a vast and indiscriminate output including installation, video, painting, sculpture, and performance. From 2009 to 2017, the collective ran the Bruce High Quality Foundation University, a free-form school that questioned the ecosystem of art, especially as it contended with fame and formal art education models. Over its lifespan, the school hosted over 100,000 students. A wide-reaching artist-participant exhibition, the Brucennial, ran from 2008 until 2014. BHQF’s work has been presented in esteemed galleries and art institutions worldwide, including the Brooklyn Museum; the Whitney Biennial, New York; and the Biennale de Lyon. Rhys Gaetano’s solo work appears in the permanent collections of Craig Robins, Thomas and Doris Ammann, Julian Schnabel, and in various private collections across the United States.

Gaetano’s eclecticism is due in great part to his upbringing. Homeschooled by his mother and influenced by his artist father, he spent his early years in a
Manhattan loft, then later moved to New Jersey; he spent formative time in the more rural areas of Asheville, North Carolina, and upstate New York. Gaetano lives and works in Brooklyn and upstate New York.