Jonah King

I am a visual artist, technologist and educator, my research focuses on emerging moving image technologies for visual arts practices. My projects use photogrammetry, motion capture and game engine technology to build interactive, multichannel video and virtual reality experiences exploring ecological themes. My recent VR project Honey Fungus premiered in the XR competition at SXSW 2025 and was featured in Variety, Cineuropa, and the Voices of VR podcast. I hold an extensive international exhibition record, with solo presentations at galleries and museums in Berlin, Seoul, Milan, Dublin, New York and Chicago, and screenings and exhibitions at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, The American Museum of the Moving Image, NCAD Gallery, Rockford Museum of Art, VISUAL Carlow, EXPO Chicago, and the New Museum. My work has also been shown in festivals such as SXSW, RealMix Bogotá, and the Austrian American Film Festival. My practice has been discussed in Artforum, Mousse Magazine, Washington Post, The Irish Times, Vogue, and NPR Radio. I am a recipient of the Owen Walsh Award, Andrew Fisher Fellowship, Sacatar Foundation Fellowship, support from organisations such as the Irish Arts Council, Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, the Simons Foundation, LMCC, and NEW INC, and an Official Selection at the Oberhausen Film Festival. My work is held in the collections of the Irish Arts Council, the Irish State Collection, and the Walker Art Center.

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 Augusto 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 hold an MFA in Visual Arts from Columbia University and a BFA in Fine Art Media from NCAD. I am currently Assistant Professor of Interactive Digital Media at Stevens Institute of Technology, and I have taught and presented at institutions including Columbia University, Brown University, The New School, Pratt Institute, VCU Qatar, RISD, and NYU. I am also a current board member of the New Media Caucus (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 Irish media artist and filmmaker exploring human/nonhuman relations and speculative futures through immersive technologies. Working between Dublin and Brooklyn, their multifaceted world-building creates narrative-driven installations, VR experiences, and video works that examine how ecological intimacies influence individual and social identity. King’s recent VR project Honey Fungus premiered in the XR competition at SXSW 2025 and was featured in Variety, Cineuropa, and the Voices of VR podcast.

King’s work has been exhibited and screened internationally at venues including the Irish Museum of Modern Art, The American Museum of the Moving Image, NCAD Gallery, Rockford Museum of Art, VISUAL Carlow, EXPO Chicago, and the New Museum, and featured in festivals such as SXSW, RealMix Bogotá, and the Austrian American Film Festival. Their projects have received support from organisations such as Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, the Simons Foundation, NEW INC, and the Irish Arts Council, and are included in the collections of the Irish Arts Council, Irish State Collection, and Walker Art Center. Their work has been covered by Artforum, NPR, The Irish Times, Vogue and Mousse Magazine. King was also the co-founder and director of Exchange Dublin, a community and independent artspace from 2009 - 2014.

King holds an MFA in Visual Arts from Columbia University and a BFA in Fine Art Media from NCAD. They are currently Assistant Professor of Interactive Digital Media at Stevens Institute of Technology, and have taught and presented at institutions such as Columbia University, Brown University, The New School, Pratt Institute, VCU Qatar, RISD, and NYU.

EXHIBITIONS
★-solo
2025 SXSW XR, Austin, Texas (World Premiere) ★
2025 Blockbuster Videos, Museum of the Moving Image, New York City
2025 DEMO STORE, New Museum (pop-up), New York City
2024 GUI/GOOEY, Plexus Projects, Brooklyn, New York (cur. Laura Splan)
2024 All Power on Earth Comes From The Sun, Bolivar Gallery, Lexington, Kentucky (cur. Solarpunk Surf Club)
2024 Expo Chicago, Hesse Flatow Gallery, Chicago
2023 Myco Film Festival, SVA Theatre, New York City
2022 Honey Fungus: Specimens, Guilty By Association, Brooklyn, New York (cur. Karen Wong) ★
2022 Ritual Weaponry, Young Collectors League, New York City (cur. Hillary Jacobs) ★
2022 Metabolism of Cities, LMCC Arts Center, Governors Island, New York (cur. Margeret Boozer, Amanda McDonald Crowley)
2022 DMD, William Benton Museum of Art, Storrs, Connecticut
2022 Future Bodies, Moss Arts Center, Virginia Tech, Virginia (cur. New Media Caucus)
2022 Festival RealMix 0.2, Instituto Distrital de las Artes, Bogota (cur. Idartes, Hyphen-Hub)
2022 Under, Over, Through, New Lab x New Museum, Brooklyn, New York (cur. Raul Zbengheci)
2022 Speech Sounds, VISUAL, Carlow, Ireland (cur. Iarlaith Ni Fheorais)
2021 How The West Was Won, Rockford Museum of Art, Chicago, Illinois (cur. New Genres Arts Space) ★
2021 Purple Jellydisc, Science Sandbox x New Museum, Brooklyn, New York
2021 Purple Jellydisc, Young Collectors League, Chelsea, New York
2021 Witches’ Butter, VISUAL, Carlow, Ireland
2021 Transformative Power, Southampton Arts Center, New York (cur. Jay Davis)
2021 Electric Feelings, One Mile Gallery, Kingston, New York (cur. Maria Kozak)
2019 Desire, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (cur. Yuko Hasegawa, Rachel Thomas)
2019 Bodies of Water, The Chocolate Factory, Dublin Fringe Festival ★
2019 All My Friends Are In The Cloud, Wonsook Kim University Galleries, Normal, Illinois (cur. Zach Buckley) ★
2019 Proposition, Hesse Flatow Gallery, New York City (cur. Jesse Greenberg)
2019 London International Motion Picture Awards, London (Finalist)
2019 Mitte Media Festival, Berlin
2019 FINDECOIN ISFF, Anzoátegui, Venezuela
2019 Chhatrapati Shivaji IFF, Pune, India
2019 CADAF, Blackdove, Miami
2018 Sights and Sounds of Ireland Today, Dupont Underground, Washington DC (cur. Jackie Hoysted)
2018 Leisure Sports, Clima Gallery, Milan (cur. Francesco Lecci) ★
2018 Landscape, Elsewhere Gallery, Brooklyn, New York (cur. Molly Surno)
2018 The Minefield Girl, Fotografiska, Stockholm (cur. Sofie Ek)
2018 The Minefield Girl, Lightbox Gallery Chelsea, New York City (cur. Sofie Ek & Blackdove)
2018 MuVi Award, ISFF Oberhausen, Oberhausen, Germany (Official Selection)
2018 Austrian American Film Festival, New York City (Official Selection)
2018 Red Dot, Blackdove, Miami
2018 Sunday Art Fair, Mayohas Gallery, London
2017 Forecast, Meyohas Gallery, New York City (cur. Sarah Meyohas) ★
2017 Upper_Sea, Weekend, Seoul (cur. Jenny Chu) ★
2017 A Place of Heaven, Crush Curatorial, Amagansett, New York (cur. Karen Flatow)
2017 Re: Art Show x10, Pfizer Building, Brooklyn, New York (cur. Erin Davis & Max C Lee)
2017 Independent Art Fair, Mayohas Gallery, Brussels
2016 Corporeality and Contemporary Bodies, Sotheby’s Institute of Art, New York City
2016 Post-Humanities, Little Berlin, Philadelphia (cur. Lunar Insurrection)
2016 Finished Goods Warehouse, Pfizer Building, Brooklyn, New York (cur. Natalie Bell)
2016 Columbia MFA Thesis Exhibition, Fisher Landau Center, Queens, New York (cur. Regine Basha)
2016 Catinca Tabacaru Gallery, New York City
2015 Floating Points, Judith Charles Gallery, New York City (cur. Paddy Johnson)
2015 In Response: Repetition and Difference, The Jewish Museum, New York City (cur. Chris Gartrell)
2015 Picturing Asia, International Institute for Asian Studies, Universiteit Leiden, Netherlands
2015 Columbia First Year MFA Exhibition, Wallach Art Gallery, New York City (cur. Deborah Cullen)
2014 Confluence, Die Zwitschermaschine, Berlin (cur. Stephan Kruhl) ★
2014 Foundation 14, Tullamore Arts Centre, Tullamore, Ireland (cur. Brendan Fox)
2014 Ex, Catalyst Arts Gallery, Belfast, Northern Ireland (cur. Iain Griffin)
2014 Spirit of the Stairs, Basic Space, Dublin
2014 Collaborations 2014, Smock Alley, Dublin
2013 Video Kills, CHQ, Dublin (cur. Totally Dublin Magazine)
2012 Temple of Psychic Youth, Kevin Kavanagh Gallery, Dublin (cur. Padraic E. Moore)
2011 The Elements, Bergamo Scienza, Bergamo, Italy
2011 The Elements, National Science Gallery, Dublin
2011 Rendered, Block T, Dublin
2010 Snakes and Ladders, Broadway Symphony Space, New York City
2009 Is This City Fit For Purpose?, Temple Bar Square, Dublin (Temple Bar Cultural Trust)
2009 Cycles, Dublin Electronic Arts Festival, Dublin