Jonah King

I am a visual artist, technologist and educator, my research focuses on emerging moving image technologies for visual arts practices. I am an Assistant Professor of Interactive Digital Media, at Steven’s Institute of Technology in New Jersey. My projects use photogrammetry, motion capture and game engine technology to build interactive, multichannel video and virtual reality experiences exploring ecological themes. I hold an extensive international exhibition record - with recent solo presentations at galleries and museums in Berlin, Seoul, Milan, Dublin, New York and Chicago. My practice has been discussed in Artforum, Mousse Magazine, Washington Post, The Irish Times, and NPR Radio. I am a recipient of the Owen Walsh Award, Andrew Fisher Fellowship, Sacatar Foundation Fellowship and an Official Selection at the Oberhausen Film Festival

My previous work as a community organiser in Ireland informed much of my teaching practice. Between 2009 and 2014, I established and directed a government-funded arts centre focused on open-access, collaborative arts practice (Exchange Dublin). I led hundreds of workshops with people of diverse ages and backgrounds designed to foster community power. I received professional training in facilitation methodologies, including Open Space Technology, Consensus-Based Decision-Making Processes and Agusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed. I bring this experience to the classroom daily by emphasising co-creation and individual empowerment through media arts.

I am a current board member of the New Media Cacus (NMC), an international non-profit association formed to promote the development and understanding of new media art. I am serving on the steering committee for our upcoming triennial symposium which will gather artists, practitioners, historians, and scholars from around the world to incubate new modes of creating and educating in emerging art technology.

My work explores the extended ecological body—the 'second body.' Suggested by Daisy Hildyard as an expansion beyond our physical selves, this second body encompasses the greater ecosystem and points to a new kind of ecological intimacy between humans and nonhumans—an intimacy of multitudes. These explorations reflect Timothy Morton's conceptualisation of a queer ecology, a framework in which all beings are messily enmeshed. This work challenges the binary structures of a hierarchical and capitalist worldview, which guide our current anthropocentric approach to ecological relations. It introduces models of thinking which can create new paths forward through the climate crisis.

The technologies I use (such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality, motion capture and avatars) echo the conceptual concerns of an extended ecological body in the digital realm. Donna Haraway's vision in A Cyborg Manifesto influences my exploration of an extended technological/biological hybrid between humans and nonhumans. Also, Katherine Hayles's conception of a continuous feedback system, in which humans evolve in symbiosis with their technological and ecological bedfellows, informs my work.

Jonah King is an interdisciplinarity artist exploring human/nonhuman relations and speculative futures. Through emerging technologies: artificial intelligence, virtual reality, motion capture, and digital avatars, Their multifaceted world-building projects examine how ecological intimacies influence individual and social identity.
Born in Ireland and working between Brooklyn and Dublin, King has exhibited internationally at venues including the Irish Museum of Modern Art, the New York Jewish Museum, and the Rockford Art Museum. Their work has been featured in publications such as Artforum, Mousse Magazine, and the Washington Post.
King holds an MFA from Columbia University and a BFA from the National College of Art and Design (NCAD) in Dublin. They are currently an Assistant Professor of Interactive Digital Media at Stevens Institute of Technology and a community member at NEW INC, the New Museum’s Art Technology Incubator. Their accolades include the Owen Walsh Award, the Andrew Fisher Fellowship, and the Sacatar Foundation Fellowship.

Solo Exhibitions
Honey Fungus: Specimens, Guilty by Association (GBA), 2022
Ritual Weaponry, Young Collectors League, 2022
How the West Was Won, Rockford Museum of Art, 2021
Tongue the Sun, NCAD Gallery, 2020
Bodies of Water, The Chocolate Factory, 2019
All My Friends Are in the Cloud, Wonsook Kim University Galleries, 2019
Leisure Sports, Clima Gallery, 2018
Forecast, Meyohas Gallery, 2017
Upper_Sea, Weekend 위켄드, 2017
Confluence, Die Zwitschermaschine, 2014

Selected Group + Juried Exhibitions
All Power on Earth Comes from the Sun, Bolivar Gallery, 2024
Metabolism of Cities, Urban Soil Institute LMCC Arts Center, 2022
DMD, William Benton Museum of Art, 2022
Future Bodies, Moss Arts Center, 2022
Festival RealMix 0.2, Instituto Distrital de las Artes, 2022
Under, Over, Through, New Lab x New Museum, 2022
Speech Sounds, VISUAL, 2022
Transformative Power, Southampton Arts Center, 2021
Electric Feelings, One Mile Gallery, 2021
Desire, A Revision from the 20th Century to the Digital Age, Irish Museum of Modern Art, 2019
Proposition, Hesse Flatow Gallery, 2019
Sights and Sounds of Ireland Today, Dupont Underground, 2018
Landscape, Elsewhere Gallery, 2018
The Minefield Girl, Fotografiska, 2018
The Minefield Girl, Lightbox Gallery Chelsea, 2018
A Place of Heaven, Crush Curatorial, 2017
Re: Art Show x 10, Pfizer Building, 2017
Corporeality and Contemporary Bodies, Sotheby's Institute of Art, 2016
Post-Humanities, Little Berlin, 2016
Finished Goods Warehouse, Pfizer Building, 2016
Columbia MFA Thesis Exhibition, Fisher Landau Center, 2016
Floating Points, Judith Charles Gallery, 2015
In Response: Repetition and Difference, The Jewish Museum, 2015
Picturing Asia, International Institute for Asian Studies, 2015
Columbia First Year MFA Exhibition, Wallach Art Gallery, 2015
Foundation 14, Tullamore Arts Centre, 2014
Ex, Catalyst Arts Gallery, 2014
Spirit of the Stairs, Basic Space, 2014
Collaborations 2014, Smock Alley, 2014
Video Kills, CHQ, 2013
Temple of Psychic Youth, Kevin Kavanagh Gallery, 2012
The Elements, Bergamo Scienza, 2011
The Elements, National Science Gallery, 2011
Rendered, Block T, 2011
Snakes & Ladders, Broadway Symphony Space, 2010
Is This City Fit for Purpose?, Temple Bar Square, 2009
Cycles, Dublin Electronic Arts Festival (DEAF), 2009

Art Fairs
Expo Chicago, Hesse Flatow Gallery, 2024
CADAF, Blackdove, 2019
Red Dot, Blackdove, 2018
Sunday Art Fair, Mayohas Gallery, 2018
Indépendant Art Fair, Mayohas Gallery, 2017

Screenings + Film Festivals
Myco Film Festival, SVA Theatre, 2023
London International Motion Picture Awards (Official Selection, Finalist), 2019
Mitte Media Festival, 2019
FINDECOIN ISFF, 2019
Chhatrapati Shivaji IFF (Official Selection), 2019
MuVi Award, ISFF Oberhausen (Official Selection), 2018
Austrian American Film Festival (Official Selection), 2018
Catinca Tabacaru Gallery, 2016

Performances
Purple Jellydisc, Science Sandbox x New Museum, 2021
Purple Jellydisc, Young Collectors League, 2021
Witches' Butter, VISUAL Carlow, 2021

Commercial Commissions
Minefield Girl - Video Commission for Spotify, 2018
Jack's Out - Music Video for Mouse on Mars, 2017
Uncrossed - Music Video for Arto Lindsay, 2017
Cuidado Madame Album Art for Arto Lindsay in Collaboration with Rirkrit Tivravanija, 2017

Collections
Irish Arts Council 70th Anniversary Acquisitions, 2022
Walker Art Center, 2018
Irish State Collection, 2012

Irish Arts Council & Skillnet Digital Arts Mentorship Scheme, 2024
Plexus Projects Residency, 2024
Irish Arts Council Agility Award for Hybrid Drift, 2023
Sacatar Fellowship, Artist In Residence, Itaparica, Brazil, 2023
Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) Governors Island Arts Center Residency, 2022
New Inc, Creative Science (The New Museum's Art and Technology Incubator), 2021
Irish Arts Council Agility Award, 2021
UConn, Humanities Institute and Office of the Vice President for Research — Scharp Development Award, 2021
Irish Arts Council Project Award for Honey Fungus, 2021
Rockford Community Artist Access Grant for History of Golf, 2021
Irish Arts Council Travel & Training Award, 2021
New Inc, XR Bodies in Space (The New Museum's Art and Technology Incubator), 2020
Irish Arts Council Visual Arts - COVID-19 Response Award for Tongue the Sun, 2020
Dublin Fringe - Best Audio Visual Award (Finalist) for Bodies of Water, 2019
Dublin City Council Award for Bodies of Water, 2019
Rema Hort Mann Foundation (Nominee) for Emerging Artist Grant, 2016
Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture Fellowship Award, 2016
Catwalk Art Residency, 2016
Andrew Fisher Fellowship, Columbia University Scholarship, 2016
Ox-Bow Graduate Residency Award, 2015
Institute of Investigative Living With Andrea Zittel & James Trainor Seminar Residency at AZ West, Joshua Tree, California, 2015
Columbia University A-Z West Fellowship, 2015
Columbia University Visual Arts Scholarship, 2014
Block T Emerging Graduate Award, 2012
National College of Art and Design Student of the Year Award, 2012
Owen Walsh Award, 2012
Green Planet Award for Food Not Bombs, 2009
Irish Arts Council Young Ensembles Scheme for Exchange Dublin, 2009