Gretchen Bender

Gretchen Bender (1951 in Seaford, Delaware – December 19, 2004 in New York City) was an American artist who worked in film, video, and photography.

Bender also designed the credits for the TV show America's Most Wanted, which Roberta Smith of the New York Times suggested in 2004 "may have originated the rapid-fire hyper-editing now pervasive in film, television and video art.

Her childhood was characterized by the era of big Hollywood extravaganzas at local theaters and constant messaging by early television.

On moving to New York in 1978,[5] Bender befriended like-minded artists including Eric Bogosian, Bill T. Jones, Robert Longo, Richard Prince, Cindy Sherman and Arnie Zane.

She often silkscreened phrases and words directly onto the television screens, such as “Relax”, “I’m Going to Die”, and “People with AIDS”, labeling each broadcast image that appeared beneath them.

[2] Eventually showing with Metro Pictures,[7] her mid-career retrospective was organized by the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse in 1991, and toured internationally.

[7] She was included in the 1989 Whitney show "Image World: Art and Media Culture," with Jeff Koons, Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger, Cindy Sherman, Sherrie Levine, and David Salle[9] and in 1992, "Contemporary Women Artists: Mixed Messages" with Kruger and Sherman again, and Nancy Dwyer, held at the Castellani Art Museum, on the campus of Niagara University in 1992.

[10] Her 42-foot-long work People in Pain, a vinyl field backlit by neon illuminating a series of movie titles that point to the cultural and narrative meanings of the films named,[11] was included in the 1989 "Forest of Signs" show at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, and later, in 2014 in the Whitney Biennial.

She died of cancer on December 19, 2004 at age 53 in New York City and is survived by her long time partner, Mitchell Wagenberg.