Artist Interview: Renata Janiszewska

Renata Janiszewska is a Techpressionist artist whose art explores themes such as chance, alchemy, shamanism, intoxication, bio-degradation, and feminism. Techpressionism refers to the expressionist art in the age of digital technology – the artist articulates feeling states such as euphoria, melancholy, and anxiety through a blend of digital and analog elements.

She enjoys the tension of playing on the edge, and her digital paintings evoke elements of Florentine Renaissance art, surrealism, and fragments of myth, blending technology and emotion in a unique and captivating way.

We asked Renata about her art, creative process, and inspirations.

Can you tell us about your background as a digital artist? How did you get started in this field?

I am a Techspressionist artist who paints on electronic canvas. Techspressionism introduces a new art historical term for fine artists using digital technology to convey subjective, emotional content.

My techniques are of my own invention, and my art-making skills transferred smoothly from analog to digital. I was not schooled in generating images via computer, which was beneficial to my making digital art. For example, I make custom brushes for my digital paintings, which then become part of the mise en scène of my moving image works.

I began using early iOS devices (iPod touch, 1st generation iPad) to make my works, and have since branched out into many other techniques. XR based work is occupying me now.

Recent works evoke Florentine Renaissance painting, Surrealism, fragments of myth, and archetypal narratives. The images are disintegrating, multiplying, fracturing and reappearing in a cycle of controlled, perpetual metamorphosis. As the seconds count down on the bottom left of your screen in my moving image works, they are taking their place in a new history of art.

I am an aesthete through and through, and it is the search for beauty that drives my work as a visual artist, both on screen and off.

Today, when digital artists are a dime a dozen, I inject an element of the hand- drawn into nearly all my works. It's my signature line.

What inspires your art? Are there any particular themes or subjects that you enjoy exploring through your artwork?

I like the tension of playing on the edge. I enjoy articulating feeling states, such as euphoria, melancholy and anxiety. My work uses both digital and analog elements to articulate themes of chance, alchemy, shamanism, intoxication, bio-degradation, and feminism.

In my moving image works, disparate narrative elements are married, both to each other and to my original musical scores, which I record and produce in my studio.

*From Sedna’s Lament, 2024, moving image work*

Can you tell us about Techspressionism?

“You are a Techspressionist when you say you are.”

The community of Techspressionists came into my life in the spring of 2021, and has provided inspiration, a myriad of occasions for sharing work, and discussing art related themes. In addition, there are curatorial projects and fantastic exhibition opportunities, two of which feature my paintings as their lead image.

Techspressionism: Digital and Beyond, curated by Colin Goldberg, and the upcoming "Hello Brooklyn!" // Techspressionism 2024, chief curator Tommy Mintz. If you're in New York, this exhibition runs August 7 through September 25, 2024 at the Kingsborough Art Museum, Brooklyn. Opening reception Friday August 9, 5 to 7 pm, all are welcome.

I have participated in round tables, moderated our monthly salons, and co-curated an online exhibition within a virtual space called Cyberiana. I curate the Instagram feed and invite artists who use the hashtag #techspressionism (which has been used almost 80k times), to be added to the Techspressionism Artist Index, which has some 350 names from over 45 countries.

Helen A. Harrison, eminent American art historian and advisor to the group, wrote: "By whatever technique it’s created, Techspressionist imagery generates its own aura, deriving its authenticity from the artist’s intention. Expression is paramount; technology is merely the delivery system.”

Through Techspressionism, I met Ariel Baron-Robbins who started Loop Art Critique, I acted as juror and advisor to artists of the 10th cohort during their six week residency in a Loop metaverse.

You were born in England, grew up in Toronto, and lived in France and Belgium – in what ways does your familiarity with different cultures impact your art?

Being the product of Eastern European parents, growing up learning French from an early age, and studying Art History at university all had an effect on the type of art I made and continue to make.

What is an event which you consider a milestone in your digital art career?

Having Syldavia, a digital painting minted on the Tezos blockchain in 2022, purchased on objkt.com by mowna (The Museum of Wild and Newfangled Art ), and put up for resale immediately for 10 times its original price. I went on to get to know the museum's curators, and am sustained and inspired by their continued interest in my work.

What else fills your time when you’re not creating art?

Looking for wild mushrooms in the forest, cycling the roads that surround my home, reading Tintin graphic novels.

What is a dream project you’d like to make one day?

A wild monumental world in which there are both analog and XR elements - think Anselm Kiefer's Barjac crossed with Takashi Murakami's digital immersive environments.