John Baldessari is a renowned American conceptual $0 artist. Baldessari was born in National City, California in 1931. By the late 1950s, Baldessari had developed his painting style of incorporating letters, words, and photographs into compositions on canvas. However, after 1970 he began working in other media including printmaking, film, video, installation, sculpture and photography. He consciously composed works using elements of language and material drawn from popular culture. He often combines and rearranges photography and text to create new, unusual syntax. The visual imagery in his work is often humorous. Baldessari taught at the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California and the University of California at Los Angeles.