Bob Bingham makes art that incorporates systems of growth, live plants and natural materials with mechanical and electronic devices. Through this combination of systems he addresses issues pertaining to a sustainable future where technology and nature exist in a symbiotic relationship. Bingham’s work has been widely exhibited in the United States, Italy and Japan including The Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia; The Brooklyn Museum; White Heat, Kanagawa Hall Gallery, Yokohama, Japan; Art+Nature, Rico Gallery, Santa Monica; Steel Cities, Cleveland Center for the Arts; and Urban Paradise/Gardens in the City, Paine Weber Art Gallery, New York. He has had many public installations including the Creative Time’s Brooklyn Bridge Anchorage; in Piazza del’ St. Stepheno Rome, Italy and the first Pittsburgh Center for the Arts Biennial. He co-directed an interdisciplinary team effort, The Nine Mile Run Greenway Project, which culminated in exhibits at the Wood Street Galleries and the Regina Miller Gallery, CMU, Pittsburgh and led to the formation of the Nine Mile Run Watershed Association.

Bingham received a B.A. in art from Montana State University, Bozeman and a M.F.A. from University of California, Davis. He is currently Associate Professor of Art and a Fellow in the STUDIO For Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon University. His work has been acknowledged with awards and grants including the National Endowments for the Arts, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Art Matters, Inc., Three Rivers Environmental Award, The Heinz Endowments and several Berkman Faculty Development Fund Grants.

His art practice evolved from ‘green’ mixed media installations into the public realm to address issues of interconnectedness between the natural and built environment. This evolution directly affected his approach as a teacher. Bingham created a new course, Environmental Sculpture, in 1996 as part of the Environment Across the Curriculum Initiative when he became a member of the Environmental Institute at Carnegie Mellon. Later as a member of the University’s Environmental Practices committee, he advised the student project to conceptually design and assist the implementation of a ‘living roof ‘ on campus. Recently, as part of the Greening of Early Undergraduate Education Initiative, he began teaching a university-wide course, EcoArt, that involves collaboration with the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy to address removal of invasive species and soil retention issues in Phipps Run, Schenley Park.

Currently he is working on a long-term collaborative project, Wegrow. Planting the seeds of a community-based urban farming and horse back riding program to creatively resettle one thousand empty lots in Homewood, a Pittsburgh East-End neighborhood, into vegetable gardens, orchards, meadows, pastures and riding arenas.