Sam Ghantous (b. 1989, Oman) is an itinerant artist based in Zürich. His practice works with the interrelationships between the built environment and the contemporary media that shapes and shares it. Using techniques from architecture, the web, and video games, he playfully and interactively assembles reused virtual and material goods into precarious situations, producing installations that confuse physical and digital space with a mix of wonder and uncertainty. Reflecting Sam’s migratory background, he crafts systems through the lens of motion, be it in the global circulation of images, the exchanges between interfaces and everyday spaces of the home, or the welcoming of audiences to collaboratively sculpt hybrid worlds.
Sam’s solo show “🏛🔀” was exhibited in New York with YveYANG Gallery. He has also exhibited with Postmasters Gallery, A83, SPRING/BREAK, ZKM at the Ludwig Museum in Budapest, ASSAB One in Milan, MODEL Festival in Barcelona, and Ooeli Park in Shanghai. As a co-founder of FOREIGN OBJECTS, a multidisciplinary design and research studio, he has received the Mozilla Creative Media Award, NEW INC Residency, and the Bard Digital Artist in Residency and exhibited with the Internet Archive, New Museum, and Open City Doc in London.
Sam has taught at Cornell, University of Toronto, and MIT, from which he holds a Master of Architecture. He is currently an Assistant in the Chair of Rosa Barba at the ETH Zürich.