Rauschenberg Jr. began his formal art training at the age of fifteen at the Maryland Institute College of Art with a split focus on painting and printmaking. Soon afterward he became professional involved with the computer industry as a digital artist making games for local companies then later as an independent internet developer.

Over the next decade Rauschenberg Jr. would spend time contemplating the question of his generation – what exactly the roll of contemporary painting was. If a counterpoint were to made to postmodernism Rauschenberg Jr. realized that physical media would work. That the intellectual confines of postmodernism were so strong that any physical object could instantly be seen as derivative. So the decision was made to work digitally virtually eliminated the “artist credentialing” necessary to elevate contemporary artist from the entrapment of postmodern critical thinking.

“I can scan a famous artist work out of a book (or just find it on the internet) and begin manipulating it immediately. Unlike the 60’s Pop artist I don’t need to translate images I can work directly with then as soon as they are found. I just don’t understand traditionalist who will work on an image for month simply to discover that it just isn’t going to work out, I can tell that digitally within hours. I know it isn’t a race but art is about personal image evolution right? So wouldn’t you want the answers sooner rather then later?” -- Rauschenebrg Jr.

Recent works focus on contemporary topics like image rights, specifically the re-contextualization of modern art masterpieces into post-modern dialogs. The artist integration of specific consumer graphics provides a subtext that evolves beyond re-appropriating elements of a late consumer society. The decentralization of image ownership is a common focus of Rauschenberg’s latest works with every image having multiple versions and every version having various iterations to support it.

“The concept originates from the famous deKooning photos of “Woman One”, it shows the various states that the painting existed in. I remember thinking to myself ‘what a waste’ all of the paintings underneath are as powerful as the final piece but the world will never see them.” --Rauschenebrg Jr.

Without a singular finished piece for the marketplace all of the pieces become equally important and when viewed together provides a complete history of the artist thoughts and approaches to creation.