Colin Goldberg (born 1971, Bronx, New York) is an American artist who layers painting, digital drawing and augmented reality into single works. He coined the term Techspressionism in 2011. He lives and works in North Bennington, Vermont.

Background and training

That mix of hand and machine goes back to the start of his career. Goldberg grew up in Southampton, New York. He studied painting at Binghamton University with Angelo Ippolito, a painter of the original New York School, and graduated in 1994, just as the web was taking off. Living in the East Village, he made CD-ROMs and websites for New York agencies, and by the late 1990s he was using the same software to make drawings. His Metagraphs, vector drawings that can be printed at any size, grew out of that period. He went on to earn an MFA from Bowling Green State University in 2008.

He also points to a family source: his maternal grandmother, Kimiye Ebisu, was a teacher of Japanese brush calligraphy, and the gestural line of shodō runs through his drawing alongside the energy of Abstract Expressionism. The painter and writer Eric Ernst explored that connection in Hamptons Art Hub.

Process

Goldberg builds his work in layers. A piece often starts as acrylic paint dragged across linen with a taping knife. He then photographs it, redraws it with a stylus in Photoshop and Illustrator, and prints the result back onto the same surface on a 44-inch printer. He may repeat that cycle six or seven times, and each pass answers the one before it. In recent years he has added one more layer that has no physical form: animation and sound in augmented reality, which appear when the finished work is seen through a phone.

Techspressionism

Goldberg first used the term Techspressionism as the title of a solo exhibition at 4 North Main Gallery in Southampton, New York. He defined the word as an artistic approach in which technology is used to express emotional experience. In 2014 came a manifesto, a catalog published by Glenn Horowitz with a foreword by Helen A. Harrison, and a Wired article that first called Techspressionism a movement.

In 2020, Techspressionism developed as a community with four founding artists (Colin Goldberg, Oz Van Rosen, Steve Miller, Patrick Lichty) and an advisor (Helen A. Harrison). The community’s open online salons have met more than 110 times. Its membership now includes 460 artists in 50 countries, and the #techspressionism hashtag appears on more than 87,000 Instagram posts.

Goldberg curated Techspressionism: Digital and Beyond at Southampton Arts Center in 2022 (also covered by The East Hampton Star). Group exhibitions followed at the Kingsborough Art Museum in Brooklyn (Hello Brooklyn!, 2024), Hudson Guild Gallery in Chelsea (2025) and Chicago’s 150 Media Stream (2025).

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Collections and recognition

His work is held by the Hearst Corporation, whose collection includes Kneeling Icon, installed at Hearst Tower in New York. It is also in the Anne and Michael Spalter Digital Art Collection, the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center, the Islip Art Museum, Stony Brook University Hospital, the Verostko Center for the Arts. He has received a Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant (2013–14) and a Long Island Creative Individuals grant funded by the New York State Council on the Arts (2013). He was artist-in-residence at The Studios of Key West in 2015, and in 2025 Five Towns College awarded him an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts.

Goldberg is represented by Helmholz Fine Art. A solo exhibition, Metagraphs: Augmented Reality Art, opens at the Cape Cod Museum of Art in Dennis, Massachusetts, June 4 – August 22, 2027.

Key facts

Born

1971, Bronx, New York, USA

Lives and works

North Bennington, Vermont

Media

Painting, digital drawing, digital mixed media, augmented reality

Known for

Coining the term Techspressionism (2011); co-founding the Techspressionism community (2020)

Education

BA, Binghamton University (1994); MFA, Bowling Green State University (2008); Honorary DFA, Five Towns College (2025)

Grants and residencies

Pollock-Krasner Foundation (2013–14); NYSCA Long Island Creative Individuals (2013); The Studios of Key West (2015)

Collections

Hearst Corporation; Anne and Michael Spalter Digital Art Collection; Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center; Islip Art Museum; Stony Brook University Hospital; Verostko Center for the Arts

Gallery

Helmholz Fine Art

Upcoming

Techspressionism: New Visual Languages, Mémoire de l’avenir, Paris (2027); Metagraphs: Augmented Reality Art, Cape Cod Museum of Art solo exhibition (June 4 – August 22, 2027)