Tony Orrico
born 1979 in Chicago, Illinois
lives and works in Iowa City, Iowa

tony orrico is known for his ingenuity within the intersections of performance and drawing. His works investigate mental and physical endurance, somatic drawing, choreography, bio-geometrics, and improvisational practices.

Orrico has performed/exhibited his work across the United States and internationally in Australia, Belgium, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Mexico, Norway, the Netherlands, Poland, and Spain. His visual work is held in the permanent collections of The National Academy of Sciences (Washington DC) and Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC, Mexico City), as well as prominent private collections such as Grazyna Kulczyk, Kablanc/Fundación Otazu, and Bergmeier/Kunstsaele, among others. He has presented at the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, Spain; Centre Pompidou-Metz, France; Cranbrook Art Museum, Detroit; Museum of Central Academy of Fine Arts Beijing, China; The New Museum, New York; and Poptech 2011: The World Rebalancing. Orrico was one of a select group of artists to re-perform the work of Marina Abramovic during her retrospective at MoMA (2010). As a former member of Trisha Brown Dance Company and Shen Wei Dance Arts, Orrico has graced such stages as the Sydney Opera House, Teatro La Fenice, New York State Theater, and Theatre du Palais-Royal. Orrico is currently an Assistant Professor of Dance and Sculpture/Intermedia at the University of Iowa, in Iowa City.

In 2020, Orrico was included in the book PERFORMANCE DRAWING: New Practices since 1945, a collection of interviews and essays exploring the relationship between drawing and performance, published by Bloomsbury.

selected works