Sam King’s (b. 1995) practice explores diverse issues including subjective experience and human relationships in the digital age, transhumanism, and the utopian and dystopian potentialities of technological progress.
Technically, his work combines traditional and ‘virtual’ registers of paint to obscure the boundary between organic and technologized life. The artist montages heterogeneous references drawn from art history, computer generated software and internet imagery, to explore the hybrid nature of contemporary experience.
King’s approach grows out of a diagnosis with an autoimmune condition. Confronted with the organic limitations of his body and its reliance on synthetic enhancements to maintain function, he questions the implications of technological integration and augmentation to the self.
Often he depict proxies of his own body, exploring the emotional implications of bodily failure, and expectations of virility surrounding masculinity and youth.
Ultimately, King’s work speaks to a moment in time where through technology our bodies and selves are continually reimagined, transcending previous limitations in both our individual function and cultural norms, yet also liquidating previously integral parts of our human nature.
Selected Solo Exhibitions.
2024
Don't Ask A Fish What Water Is, Curated by Edoardo Monti, Palazzo Monti, Brescia, Italy
2023
Seeing Is Believing, Eve Leibe Gallery, London
Selected Group Exhibitions.
2024
The Future of Loneliness, Curated by Maria Dolfini, Guts Gallery, London
2023
Imaginarium, Curated by Silvana Lagos, Public Service Gallery, Stockholm
BetweenThe Bridge And The Door, Pictorum Gallery, London
Cacotopia, Annka Kultys Gallery, London
2022
Blurred States of Being, Prior Art Space, Barcelona
Hyper-Contemporary act II, Hasbrook Galleries, Virtual Show
Fever Dream, Vortic, Curated by Daria Borisova, Virtual Show (displayedat Santa Monica Art Museum)
Water is Not for Sale, Bloom Galerie, St Tropez
Touchwood, Eve Leibe Gallery Hosted by Prior Art Space, Berlin
Soho Revue x The Little Scarlet Door, London
Voices for Love, Prior Art Space, Barcelona
Turps Off Site Leavers Show, Thames Side Gallery, London
All The Same at Different Ages, Fitzrovia Gallery, London
Together/Somewhere, Visionary Projects x ArtCityWorks, Online
#1 Exhibition, ArtsinSqaure, Online
2021
London Design Week, The Bottle Factory, London
Pulp, The Florence Trust, London
Rea Fair, Milan, Italy
Education.
Turps Off Site Course 2021-2022
The Art Academy, Fine Art Diploma, 2015-2018
Residencies.
2024
Palazzo Monti, Brescia, Italy
2022
Pictorum Gallery Residency, London.
Eve Leibe Project, London
2020
PADA studios, Lisbon, Portugal
2019
Art House Holland, Holland
Auc Art Lab, London
2017
Jardin Orange Artist Residency, Shenzhen, China
Selected Press.
2024
2022
Bricks Magazine – Best Exhibitions to Visit in March
2021
‘Both Sides of Here: Artistic Encounters at the Threshold’ Magazine