" Born and raised in New York City, Mr. Gartel taught Andy Warhol how to use the Amiga Computer, when he got the commission to do the cover of Debbie Harry's (Blondie) album cover. Gartel went to School of Visual Arts and associated with fellow student, graffiti artist Keith Haring, where he earned his BFA degree majoring in Graphics.
Gartel went to CW Post College going for his MA in photography studying under Arthur Liepzig. Gartel started his electronic career working side by side with Nam June Paik at Media Study/Buffalo in upstate New York in 1975. Gartel had many associations with musicians such as Debbie Harry (Blondie) Sid Vicious (Sex Pistols), Stiv Bators (Dead Boys) Johnny Thunders (New York Dolls) Ace Frehley (Kiss) and Wendy O Williams (Plasmatics).
Recently, Gartel has created artwork for such Pop Culture stars such as Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears. His ABSOLUT GARTEL commission for Absolut Vodka is perhaps his most well-known artwork gracing the pages of "ART-IN-AMERICA," "Artforum," "Sothebys," "Art and Auction,""Art and Antiques," "ArtByte," "Scientific American," "Technology Review," "WIRED," & "NY Magazine. It is known as the first Digital Photographic ever ever created for this famous advertising campaign and is included in ABSOLUT BOOK by Richard Lewis.
Mr. Gartel is the subject of many books: "Laurence Gartel: A Cybernetic Romance" published by Gibbs Smith, (c) 1989 Utah. Introduction to the book is written by video guru Nam June Paik.
"GARTEL: Arte & Tecnologia" published by Edizioni Mazzotta, (c) 1998 Milan, Italy. Introduction to the book is written by noted art historian and critic Pierre Restany. 250 pages over 400 color plates.
Included in the Italian Art History Textbook: "La Storia Dell Arte" published by Editions Giunti (c) 2001, Florence. Michelangelo at the front of the book; GARTEL represents "NEW VISUAL LANGUAGES. " Gartel is also included in the books "Creative Computer Graphics" Cambridge University Press, UK 1984, "Art Of the Digital Age" written by Professor Bruce Wands" and published by Thames and Hudson, 2006, as well as "Digital Art" published by Ullman, Germany 2009 and "The Digital Print" published by The Getty Museum, Malibu, California 2009, "THE WORLD OF DIGITAL ART" published by HF Ullman, Germany, 2010.