“Techism is a movement that reconciles technological innovation with the creation of art. It does not put technology before art but rather, sees art and technology as companions meeting the next wave of human expression – digital humanism.”
Three years ago people were questioning whether Krista Kim’s work could even be considered art. Now she is one of today’s top trending artists recognized not only for her tech-infused fine artworks, but also for having a major role in an entire art movement said to be the next wave of human creation. “Techism” is defined as a genre of art that embraces the marriage of technology and art as a new method of expression. But to Krista Kim, it is also an essential evolution bridging artists and engineers into more expansive collaborations and opens up an important dialogue about our changing interaction in today’s increasingly digital world. “Techism” is about making sense of the virtual world in the concrete world, a digital paradigm that has altered our behavior and is integrating more and more into our physical reality,” Kim says.
Growing up in Toronto, Canada, Kim always dreamed of becoming an artist. But it wasn’t until after she spent four years in Tokyo studying traditional Japanese painting and then moved to Singapore to pursue her MFA at La Salle College of the Arts /Goldsmiths, that she ultimately discovered exactly what type of artist she was destined to be. “I lived in Singapore from 2005-2010, right when it was experiencing a lot of growth and becoming a really high-tech city. There were new development projects everywhere and LED lights became the entire landscape both indoor and outdoor,” Kim explains. “I had been studying abstract expressionist painting at the time but I became more interested in capturing photographs of lights and experimenting with Photoshop and binary codes. It turned into a four year process of discovery and chance, and a continued driving passion to explore my own style of ‘algorithmic abstract’ art.”
For Kim, ”light is the new ink” and as a reflective artist following Marshall McLuhan’s school of thought, the medium is also her message. More specifically, Kim’s work is a response to our constant exposure to bright LED lights as we’ve become increasingly reliant upon electronic devices such as laptops and mobile phones. Influenced by artists such as Mark Rothko, Marcel Duchamp and James Turrell, Kim has mastered her own visual mark of conceptual, light infused abstracts that have projected her into the art world spotlight. Her bold color schemes aren’t created in a studio filled with canvases and paints, but rather a laptop loaded with a giant database of LED light photography, binary code, Photoshop and her self-created dynamic software. “My studio is clean, stark, and a far cry from a painting studio. It’s just me and my Mac. It’s so digital,” Kim laughs. “But my creative process is more about staying informed and discussing ideas with people. I follow discussions on Digital Humanities, I ask a lot of questions and reach out to leaders of new technology. Then, when I have the urge to create, it just comes,” she says.
It’s not that Kim’s embracement of Techism is her rejection of traditional art forms, it’s more that she uses her work to challenge the traditional ideals and institutional constructs of what art is. “Most art schools are still only teaching artists to draw or paint and to think in a certain way. They aren’t adapting to today’s world,” Kim explains. “It’s important to understand that for artists it’s not about the medium but more about the vision and Techism invites artists to communicate and expand their vision through all possible mediums.”
Kim also challenges the traditional concept of how art is presented. For instance, she exhibits works from her ongoing “Digital Color Field” series using Plexiglass mounts instead of frames to enhance the digital experience and make the viewer feel as though they are looking at the image through a flat screen TV rather than just a wall hanging. Her “Interactive” series challenges art presentation even further by inviting the viewer to affect the LED light patterns by interacting with the screen. Currently she is collaborating with Tech engineers to take her installation project and the Techism movement to a whole new platform.
Krista Kim’s fusion of fine art and technology has not only earned her recognition as one of today’s most trending artists online, she is also regarded as a Techism innovator impacting the traditional art world across the globe. Since 2012, she has been invited to showcase her work at international exhibits that include Worlds Apart Fair, Institute of Contemporary Art’s La Salle Show, Samsung’s Imagine, Visualize, Create and the Curator’s List for Saatchi Art’s “LargeScale and Luxury.” In April, she showed with Avant Arte’s “All Art Everything” at Guy Hepner Gallery in Soho, NY and she is also a featured artist with renowned contemporary on-line art galleries, Saatchi Art and Rise Art.
Currently, Krista Kim is exhibiting with Austrian artist, Wolfgang Sagmeister at the Austrian Cultural Forum in Washington DC. The joint show, “Indisputable Evidence”, runs until May 27, 2016 and is open to the public. To find out more information about the exhibit click here.
To find out more about Krista Kim and her collection of work, go directly to her official website: www.kristakimstudio.com.
Or, follow the artist on Instagram and Facebook.
Reprinted from the Examiner.