Colin Goldberg

Colin Adriel Goldberg (born December 23, 1971) is an American visual artist known for his role in the development of Techspressionism.

Goldberg coined the term Techspressionism in 2011 as the title of a solo exhibition in Southampton, New York. Goldberg went on to write the Techspressionist Manifesto in 2014, and Techspressionism was first referred to as a movement in WIRED later that year. The use of the hashtag #techspressionism on Instagram became the primary way that the idea began to proliferate globally, with over 40,000 Instagram posts using the hashtag as of April 2022.

Early life and education
Colin Goldberg was born in the Bronx, New York in 1971 to parents of Japanese and Jewish ancestry. He grew up on the East End of Long Island.

Goldberg studied Studio Art at Binghamton University under the tutelage of the Abstract Expressionist painter Angelo Ippolito, who was responsible for introducing him to abstraction and encouraged his move to New York City after graduation. As an undergraduate student, he did an internship through Long Island University, working as a studio assistant in the Hamptons for artist Steve Miller. Goldberg worked alongside Robert Bardin, a longtime screen printer for Andy Warhol.

After completing his undergraduate degree in 1994, Goldberg established his first studio in an old bank building in Williamsburg, Brooklyn before relocating to Manhattan's East Village shortly thereafter.

Ohio


In 2005, Goldberg was offered a full scholarship into the MFA Computer Art program at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, where he went on to attend graduate school. Shortly after beginning graduate school, his painting Pollock's Studio was accepted into the permanent public collection of the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center in East Hampton, New York.

Long Island
In 2014, he exhibited a survey of his work at Glenn Horowitz Bookseller in East Hampton, New York. The solo show, curated by the artist Scott Bluedorn, was accompanied by a text entitled The Techspressionist Manifesto, which was inspired by artistic manifestos of the past, including the Surrealist Manifesto and the Futurist Manifesto. The text included an initial definition of the term Techspressionism, an amalgam of the Oxford English Dictionary definitions of Expressionism and technology.

Artistic style and influences
The artist's interests in digital art and painting converged in his Wireframe series, in which he began experimenting with running painted surfaces through his printer. Goldberg's style in relation to this body of work has been described as "controlled chaos." Goldberg was also heavily influenced by Abstract Expressionist painters such as Franz Kline, whose use of a projector borrowed from Willem de Kooning was the inspiration for a series of pencil drawings that were composed digitally and executed by hand with the aid of a projector.

Other influences include the artist's maternal grandmother Kimiye Ebisu, an calligrapher who taught shodō in Hawaii and Japan. The influence of Japanese aesthetics on the artist's work was explored by artist and writer Eric Ernst, grandson of the surrealist painter Max Ernst and son of the abstract expressionist artist Jimmy Ernst.

Curation
In 2022, Goldberg organized and curated Techspressionism: Digital and Beyond, the first physical exhibition of Techspressionist artworks, which opened at Southampton Arts Center on April 21 of that year. The show included the works of over 90 artists working with technology from more than 20 countries.

Personal life
Goldberg lives and works in Vermont. He has a daughter.