North Bennington VT, 2024 with Unconditional (left) and Orbit (right)
Bronx-born artist Colin Goldberg’s work explores the relationship between technology and personal expression. His studio practice bridges multiple disciplines, notably painting, and digital media.
Goldberg coined the term “Techspressionism” as the title for a solo exhibition in Southampton NY in 2011. It was first described as a movement in the 2014 WIRED article “If Picasso had a Macbook Pro” and was later elaborated upon in a 2015 interview on the PBS show Art Loft.
The working definition of Techspressionism is “An artistic approach in which technology is utilized as a means to express emotional experience.”
Over the course of the pandemic, Techspressionism has grown into an international art movement comprised of artists working with technology from over 40 countries. Since the Summer of 2020, there have been over 80K posts published on Instagram using the hashtag #techspressionism.
A core group of artists regularly meet online at “Techspressionist Salons“, bi-weekly artist meetups where artists can present their work and discuss matters relating to art and technology. The group also hosts ongoing online exhibitions. Goldberg was the curator of Techspressionism’s first large-scale physical group exhibition, Techspressionism: Digital and Beyond at Southampton Arts Center in Southampton, New York in Spring 2022.
Techspressionism: Digital and Beyond included the works of over 90 artists working with technology from more than 20 countries around the world including Afghanistan, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Canary Islands, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Iran, Italy, Netherlands, Peru, Puerto Rico, Russia, Taiwan, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine and the United States.
Critic and curator Helen Harrison, former Director of the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center in East Hampton NY, is the group’s advisor. More information on Techspressionism is available at Techspressionism.com.
Goldberg was born in the Bronx, New York in 1971 to parents of Japanese and Jewish ancestry, both Ph.D chemists. His grandmother Kimiye was an accomplished practitioner and instructor of Japanese Shodo calligraphy in Hawaii and Japan. He attended Southampton High School on Long Island’s East End. In the 1990’s the artist supported his studio practice as a freelancer in NYC advertising agencies, coding and designing some of the web’s first consumer-facing sites and launching brands such as Snapple, GOLF Magazine, and Popular Science online. Goldberg holds a BA in Studio Art from Binghamton University and a MFA in Computer Art from BGSU. He is a recipient of grants from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation and the New York State Council on the Arts.
Goldberg’s works reside in numerous private and public collections, including the permanent collections of the Hearst Corporation, Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center, Verostko Center for the Arts, Stony Brook University Hospital and the Islip Art Museum, as well as the AOI (Art on Internet) Foundation, and Anne and Michael Spalter Digital Art Collection, one of the world’s largest private collections of early digital art.
Most recently, Goldberg has developed a body of Augmented Reality artworks called Metagraphs. The first work, a 6×8 foot piece called Kneeling Icon, was first exhibited at Southampton Arts Center, was purchased by the Hearst Corporation in 2023 and is the first AR work in their collection. It is now permanently installed in Hearst Tower. The second work, called Circuit, debuted at the Kingsborough Museum of Art in Brooklyn last summer. The works have been collected into a book titled Metagraphs: Augmented Reality Art. When the reader views the works of art in the book with the Artivive mobile app, they animate right on the pages of the book. It is the first AR art book on Amazon. This book and the artist’s AR works are available as open editions at metagraphs.art.
Colin Goldberg lives and works in North Bennington, Vermont and has a daughter, Aya. He is represented by Helmholz Fine Art, with locations in Manchester Vermont and TriBeCa.
Photo: Rick Wenner