He is born 1957, in New York, graduated from California University for the Arts, Valencia, 1979. He is a multi-media and installation artist. In the installations, he uses film and video projections to animate objects, often with monologues or dialogues, which turn the neutral or characterless shapes into disturbed, suffering or puzzling individuals. Sometimes the projection is that of a body and a face, occasionally there are two heads engaged in some form of a relationship or in conversation, sometimes the work can be just an eye or several eyes. The projection of a speaking face on a cushion stuck beneath an armchair, a mattress, or in a suitcase, is emotionally disturbing. The monologue is barely audible and the viewer has no idea of what is being said. The character of Oursler's work is the opposite of anthropomorphism, where something that obviously isn't human demonstrates human characteristics. In most of his works, and the dummies in particular, Oursler's works are quite unquestionably human in a non-human situation.

He has exhibited throughout the world and lives and works in New York.