Tara Mateik is an artist and educator living in New York City. In his videos and performances he typecasts himself as theoretical and cultural transvestites from pop music, competitive sport, and weird science. In 2002 he founded The Society of Biological Insurgents (SBI), an embryonic cell organization that wages strategic operations to overthrow institutions of compulsory gender. Mateik's work has been exhibited at venues that include The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Roebling Hall and Reena Spaulings in New York, the Black Maria Film Festival and LACE in Los Angeles. Mateik's writing and work has been published in Felix: A Journal of Media Arts and Culture, LTTR, a queer feminist art journal, North Drive Press #2, and Art Fancy. His awards include a three-year fellowship at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a grant from the Creative Capital Foundation in film/video, an Electronic and Film Art Grant from the Experimental Television Center, and a BCAT/BRIC Rotunda Gallery Video Residency. In addition to his own work he has collaborated with collectives and artists including Paper Tiger Television video collective to produce short videos that demystify and democratize the media. In 2000 he co-founded Dykes Can Dance with Emily Roysdon and JD Samson. Mateik graduated from Hampshire College in 1997 with a BA in Video and from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, in 2004 with an MFA in Integrated Electronic Arts. Currently he teaches at CUNY Staten Island in the Media Culture Department. http://www.taramateik.com