Peter Campus

Clinical Associate Professor

"The department has the vision and the energy to make NYU one of the top art schools in the country."

Peter Campus knew he wanted to be an artist when he took his first painting class at age 14. “Art was amazing,” he realized. “It offered me a form in which I could express my concerns about the world in a way that made sense to me. This discovery was enthralling and one I’ll never forget.” Since he didn’t come from the kind of family that would support his decision to study art, let alone be an artist, Campus got a degree in psychology. “I finally became an artist when I was old enough that no one could tell me what to do anymore.”

Since then, Campus has become a seminal figure in video art, with work that includes closed circuit installations, photography, and computer-based images. Like most artists, he is reluctant to describe his work, but he does say that psychological concerns are one of its foundations. “I’m very interested in the formation of the personality in the world. I think that comes into play in all my work.” He says his work also has philosophical concerns and, sometimes, political concerns, “as in responding to what George W. Bush is up to,” he says. Ultimately, Campus says his work is about the interaction of man and nature. “But I think about all these things, and as I do I start putting them into the physical work. In art there is always a relationship between thought and material.”

Interestingly, Campus doesn’t show students his work. “I don’t want my work to be at all a part of their thinking. They’re a different generation, with different concerns. As someone who studied psychology, I put a lot of emphasis on the individual. For me it’s really important to see students develop into themselves.” What he does best as a teacher, he says, is to initiate a dialogue with his students to “get insight into the work they’re creating and help them along with it.”

He’s also concerned with preparing his students for the world outside of school. “Artists do their work in isolation and then bring it into the community. This means that they eventually have to learn how to deal with a mercantile world. I’m in favor of talking to students about how this happens.” Some of his students embrace athese discussions, while others would rather ponder such things once they are out of school. “But they are all aware that there are hundreds of spaces in New York where they can eventually show their work.”

Campus enjoys seeing his work in both large and small venues. It has been shown around the world, in places as varied in size and mission as The Bemis Center in Omaha, The Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. “I like the balance of that. It seems important. Sometimes seeing it in a large national museum is nice, but other times seeing it in little show in upstate New York is even better. Also, you’re reaching different people depending on the kind of gallery where the work appears. Work is also viewed with different attitudes and moods depending on the different places it’s shown.”

When asked about his hopes for the future of the department, Campus replies, “That’s easy - anything I can help department chair Nancy Barton with. She’s truly amazing because she’s doing so many exciting things. She’s making such a visible department, with more interaction with the art world, and she’s bringing a lot of fascinating people in from the outside. We’ve also got some of the best students in the country. I believe the department has the vision and the energy to make NYU one of the top art schools in the country.”

Peter Campus's complete faculty bio.