Featured Artist Colin Goldberg

Artist Colin Goldberg presents his fascinating portfolio, created in a style he calls “Techspressionism.” Learn more about his work by visiting his website.

 

 

My work explores the intersection of abstraction and technology. I describe my visual language as “Techspressionism,” which I define as “An artistic style in which technology is utilized as a means to express emotional experience rather than impressions of the external world.”

 

 

My art is informed by a diverse range of sources, including the Abstract Expressionist painters of the 1950’s, 3D wireframe models and Japanese Shodo calligraphy.

 

 

My formal art education spans traditional and digital media. As an undergraduate student, I studied painting under Angelo Ippolito, a second-generation Abstract Expressionist painter. He opened my eyes to abstraction and encouraged me to move to New York City after my graduation in 1994. I lived and worked first in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and then moved my studio to Manhattan’s East Village.

 

 

It was the early days of the web, and I began working as a freelance designer to support my studio overhead, launching brands such as Snapple and Popular Science online. It was at that time that I began to incorporate digital tools into my artwork.

 

 

This started with a series of abstract vector-based digital compositions, drawn on a Wacom tablet in Adobe Illustrator. Eventually this led to experimenting with printing my compositions directly onto painted surfaces using a modified inkjet printer.

 

 

On the basis of this work, I was offered a full scholarship into the MFA Computer Art Program at Bowling Green State University in Ohio in 2005. Over the course my graduate studies, which were completed in 2008, I developed a large body of computer-assisted paintings and works on paper, as well as laser etchings in stone and wood, which expanded upon the technological visual vocabulary I was developing.

 

 

Around this time I also began to incorporate Sumi ink painting in my work, inspired by my maternal grandmother Kimiye who had been born in Japan and was an accomplished calligrapher and teacher.

 

 

Recent grants from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation and the New York State Council on the Arts have helped me add a large-format printer to my studio and dedicate time to developing my studio practice. I also spent a month as an artist-in-residence at The Studios of Key West, which was an amazing experience that led to a solo exhibition and a syndicated interview on PBS.

 

 

Press coverage in publications such as WIRED and The New York Times has also helped to expose my work to a wider audience, and within the last few years, my work has been acquired into several permanent collections, including the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center, the Islip Art Museum and Stony Brook University Hospital.

 

 

Recently, I made the decision to rebuild my site for commerce, allowing the public to purchase original works and prints directly online. Because of the web and platforms like Instagram, I feel that artists have an opportunity to embrace the changing economy of the internet and re-invent the power structures of the art world which have been in place for so many years.

 

Artist Colin Goldberg invites you to follow him on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

 

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