About ten years ago, I came up with the term “Techspressionism” as the title for a self-produced show at 4 North Main Gallery in Southampton. For the last six months or so I have been expanding this concept into an online community of artists working with technology. The group currently includes around 200 talented artists from over 30 nations.
The project is inspired in part by the ideas of “social sculpture” developed by German artist Joseph Beuys. The definition of Techspressionism (as defined by group members) is: “An artistic approach in which technology is utilized as a means to express emotional experience.” Yesterday, we held our ninth bi-weekly “Techspressionist Salon” artist meetup on Zoom.
These events follow a tradition of “artist salons” of the past – informal gatherings where artists can get together to meet up, show each other their work (in this case, screen-share) and to “talk shop”. The meetups are being recorded for posterity and are viewable here.
Many thanks to all involved in the project thus far, especially our Group Advisor, Helen Harrison, Director of the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center in East Hampton. And thanks as always to my wife, partner, and best friend Donna for enduring my never-ending obsession and compulsion surrounding my studio and whatever goes on in it. In the light of the pandemic, we are organizing a virtual show that will introduce the group to the world this coming Summer and we have tentative plans for an international group exhibition in a physical space in the Hamptons and/or NYC for 2022.
Feel free to share this post with any artists who may be interested in participating or others who may be interested in the project. Some information on how to get involved is here. We have been using Instagram as a primary platform to locate and feature artists; you can follow Techspressionism on Instagram to see ongoing work posted by featured artists as well as work using the hashtag #techspressionism.