Art SG: Krista Kim

For the 2023 edition of ART SG in Singapore, Unit London presents a solo exhibition of new digital and VR artworks by pioneering artist Krista Kim. 

Since 2012, Kim has been working with digital software to develop a visual language of shifting multidimensional gradients. Her artworks, imbued with a sense of the transcendental and the meditative, explore the interconnectivity between physical and digital consciousness. In 2014, Kim founded the Techism movement, an approach that promotes the relationship between humankind, technology and visual culture to enable positive, transformative outcomes for technology’s role in our future societies.

Kim’s solo booth at ART SG includes a special collaboration with Infinite Objects. An Infinite Object is a physical display screen with a QR code uniquely customised to display your NFT directly from the blockchain. A perfect amalgamation of physical and digital, an Infinite Object ‘video print’ offers a novel way to experience digital art and live with it in your home, whilst the QR code enables you to prove your ownership on-chain, anytime.

For Art SG, each of Kim’s 100 SuperBlue v.3 NFTs will be inextricably linked to an Infinite Object screen – allowing collectors to take their digital work home with them in a physical frame. The artwork will be pre-released at Art SG for fair visitors, before general release on our website on January 17, 2023.

In addition to Infinite Objects, we will present a Virtual Reality experience at our booth, bringing a multi-dimensionality to Krista’s unique architectural work, Regenesis. Upon purchase the collector will receive a digital property, designed, built and hosted on a plot of virtual land in the Spatial Metaverse. The property presents a regenerated vision for the housing projects of Mott Haven in The Bronx, NY, demonstrating how Virtual and Mixed Reality experiences can beautify existing architectural structures and present alternative visions for the future of our communities.

ART SG is held across two floors at Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre, Singapore and runs from 12 to 15 January 2023. Find us at Booth RE05. 

While observing the aspects of technology that have perhaps damaged human connection and empathy, Kim has perceived changes to our psychological and interpersonal behaviours. Technologies that aimed to bring us closer together have seemed to divide us, triggering attitudes of nihilism and isolation. To identify how our society has lost sight of the original benefits of digital spheres, Kim founded Techism to stimulate conversation around technology’s evolution for the good of humanity. In doing so, Kim advocates for art and visual culture as the ideal catalysts for such discussion. Through her own work, Kim aims to elevate human consciousness by creating visceral moments through multidimensional light installations. One of these pieces, Continuum, has recently been acquired by Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), taking inspiration from the vibrant, ever-changing skies of the city.

Informed by the Buddhist notion of zen and inspired by her meditative experiences at Ryōan-ji Temple Garden in Kyoto, Kim’s exhibition prompts experiences of healing and wellness through screens. The artworks demonstrate how screens can be repurposed to create moments of peace and tranquillity, forming a powerful counterpoint to their usual association with overload, passivity and manipulation. This gives new significance to Krista’s collaborative edition with Infinite Objects. In the same way that Krista’s digital landscapes of shifting gradients convert screens into mechanisms of healing and wellbeing, an Infinite Object display unit transforms a screen into a beautiful, digital art performance piece. 

Furthermore, the virtual reality elements of the exhibition enhance the multidimensional qualities of Kim’s works that are able to glimpse various aspects of experience, colour and light. As such, the exhibition underscores the importance of artistic participation in technology, which has become increasingly crucial in this age of digital innovation and accelerated change. By creating meditative experiences through an overlap of artistic and digital realms, Kim’s practice demonstrates how technology can be used as a holistic tool, providing an antidote to the fast-paced nature of contemporary society. Ultimately, Kim’s exhibition emphasises the creative potential of technology, promoting a new medium of unrestrained expression and contemplating what it means to be human today. Embodying a philosophy of digital humanism, Kim’s artworks recover a belief in the power of digital creation to unite rather than divide. 

Krista Kim (b.1976) is a digital artist based between Toronto and Los Angeles. Her work is imbued with a sense of transcendence and meditation, created using a visual language that she intends to act as a digital consciousness. One of Kim’s most notable works is Mars House, the first digital house NFT, which sold on the SuperRare platform for 288 ETH, equivalent to $512,000 at the time. Often compared to surrealist depictions, her works exemplify the sublime, while she produces experiential zen moments through her multidimensional light installations. In 2014, Kim founded the Techism movement, which promotes the convergence of art and technology. In June 2022, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art acquired Continuum Los Angeles, her work which takes inspiration from the vibrant, ever-changing skies of the city, visually represented as a 40-minute gradient display.