About Me

"...Isaiah King’s prints reflect two sides of longing—stemming from desire and plain need. In this line, his work shares a direct link to the German Expressionists, though updated with contemporary views of graphic design..."

- Lynn Maliszewski, bombsite.com

Photo by Rosie Cohe

Photo by Rosie Cohe

I am a Canadian-born artist, graphic designer and animator living and working in Brooklyn, New York. My printmaking, collage and drawing works pursue an ongoing study of the human form. I use multiple printmaking and drawing techniques, applying diverse and aggressive mark making to my figure studies. My design studio and practice build upon an assertion that art and design can play an important role in the elevation of deeper public discourse on social issues. 

My Mini Bio

Really Early years:
According to my parents I’ve been drawing from a very young age. People and cows featured prominently in my pre-kindergarten period. The highlight of my early work is a small religious piece entitled “Angel Dropping Sewing Machine on Nativity Scene,” my mother still has this in her collection.

Earlier years:
Within a community of crafts people and artisans I went to a two-room schoolhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. Here Coral Nault (the most influential artist in my life) taught me everything from the color wheels to how to proportionally draw a face. I still fail her tertiary colors pop quiz when I see her on home visits!

Early-ish years:
In hindsight I now understand that Canterbury Arts High School in Ottawa, Ontario had a creative educational rigor on par or exceeding most post-secondary schools. Which might be why even though I didn’t totally suck at art, I still didn’t get stellar grades. Rightfully so! Those grades were reserved for my genius classmates whom I still admire today.

The other years:
Hazy, hung-over experimentations in music, theater, African travel, set design, hard labor and construction…

The Resurrection Period:
My muse and now wife kicked my ass back into what I was always good at, visual arts. I picked up my pencils and brushes again and went off to art school. My ChangeTheWorld-Adbusters-subversive-design-fascination set me on the graphic design track at MassArt in Boston. Here I also rediscovered my love for printmaking and spent every spare minute at school in the print studio.

The now time
Greenpoint, Brooklyn is now my home. Here I’ve established a small graphic design and animation studio and continue to create my own art.