Joshua Citarella is an artist and writer from

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

whose work is primarily focused

online communities An online community, also called an internet community or web community, is a community whose members engage in computer-mediated communication primarily via the Internet. Members of the community usually share common interests. For many, on ...

and

internet culture Internet culture refers to culture developed and maintained among frequent and active users of the Internet (also known as netizens) who primarily communicate with one another as members of online communities; that is, a culture whose influence ...

. He is host of the ''Doomscroll'' podcast and creator of the online platform ''Do Not Research''.

Early life and education

Citarella attended the

School of Visual Arts The School of Visual Arts New York City (SVA NYC) is a private for-profit art school in New York City. It was founded in 1947 and is a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design. History This school was started by Silas ...

in New York, where he learned both traditional darkroom photography and digital techniques during a period when the school was transitioning its focus from the former to the latter.

Career

Following his graduation, Citarella was involved with an artist collective concentrated on

digital culture Internet culture refers to culture developed and maintained among frequent and active users of the Internet (also known as netizens) who primarily communicate with one another as members of online communities; that is, a culture whose influence ...

and advertising. His ongoing work with

Brad Troemel Brad Troemel (born 1987) is an American artist and writer based in New York City. Troemel is most well known for co-creating the Tumblr blog ''The Jogging'' in 2009 which received attention for its work in post internet art. A self-described “ ...

began during this period with ''The Jogging'', a collaborative project initiated in 2009 in which audience-submitted photos were posted to

Tumblr Tumblr (pronounced "tumbler") is a microblogging and Social networking service, social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007 and is owned by American company Automattic. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content ...

to be examined as art''.'' In 2013, Citarella made his artistic debut with a series of five

chromogenic In chemistry, the term chromogen refers to a colourless (or faintly coloured) chemical compound that can be converted by chemical reaction into a compound which can be described as "coloured" (a chromophore). There is no universally agreed definiti ...

still life photos at Higher Pictures, a photographic art gallery in New York, New York. The series included ''Body Anointed with Nitroglycerin Awaits Transfiguration'', depicting a "reclining nude woman, partially covered in silver, with little flecks of skin and paint floating around her," with some

nitroglycerin Nitroglycerin (NG) (alternative spelling nitroglycerine), also known as trinitroglycerol (TNG), nitro, glyceryl trinitrate (GTN), or 1,2,3-trinitroxypropane, is a dense, colorless or pale yellow, oily, explosive liquid most commonly produced by ...

smudging the frame. Andrew Russeth of ''The Observer'' describes the work as showing "exacting detail" instilling in viewers a "discomfort

hat A hat is a Headgear, head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorpor ...

..is also a sign that Mr. Citarella is closely attuned to the intricate traps of image production today." In 2016, Citarella continued his collaboration with Troemel, collaborating on an

Etsy Etsy, Inc. is an American e-commerce company with an emphasis on the selling of handmade or vintage items and craft supplies. These items fall under a wide range of categories, including jewelry, bags, clothing, home decor, religious items, furni ...

store titled ''Ultra Violet Production House'', providing the buyer with a material kit and fabrication guide to build the work of art. As of January 2017, the two had put up seventy-eight artworks for sale, most of them consisting of a commonplace object in a manner that develops a sense of absurdity. In 2017, Citarella presented a 12-by-8-foot triptych, titled ''SWIM A Few Years From Now'', at

The Armory Show The Armory Show is an international art fair in New York City, known as New York's Art Fair. Established in 1994 as the Gramercy International Art Fair by dealers Colin De Land, Pat Hearn, Lisa Spellman, Matthew Marks and Paul Morris, the annu ...

. The work depicts his vision of how life in an American

anarcho-capitalist Anarcho-capitalism (colloquially: ancap or an-cap) is a political philosophy and economic theory that advocates for the abolition of Sovereign state, centralized states in favor of Stateless society, stateless societies, where systems of p ...

society could manifest. Writing for

Artsy Artsy, formally known as Art.sy Inc is a New York City based online art brokerage. Its main business is developing and hosting website for numerous galleries as well as selling art for them. It utilizes a search engine and database to draw conne ...

, Scott Indrisek notes that the piece displays "a canny blend of analog photography and digital trickery, with many images borrowed from the internet... thas the slickness of a dystopian

IKEA IKEA ( , ) is a Multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in Sweden that designs and sells , household goods, and various related services. IKEA is owned and operated by a series of not-for-profit an ...

catalog spread." In 2018, Citarella published the book ''Politigram & the Post-Left''. The book is a research project concentrating on niche political Instagram accounts found collectively within the "Politigram" (Political Instagram) community. Citarella published another book in 2020 titled ''20 Interviews'', which is a collection of interviews from users on Politigram. In 2019, Citarella worked as an adjunct professor at the

. In 2024, Citarella began to host the ''Doomscroll'' podcast. Podcast guests have included

Matty Healy Matthew Timothy Healy (born 8 April 1989) is an English singer-songwriter and record producer who is the lead vocalist and principal songwriter of the pop rock band the 1975. He is recognised for his Lyricist, lyricism, Eclecticism in music, ...

, Adam Friedland,

Ezra Klein Ezra Klein (born May 9, 1984) is an American American liberalism, liberal political commentator and journalist. He is currently a ''The New York Times, New York Times'' columnist and the host of ''The Ezra Klein Show'' podcast. He is a co-founde ...

, Catherine Liu, Andrew Callaghan, and Brace Belden.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Citarella, Joshua School of Visual Arts alumni 1987 births Living people American Twitch (service) streamers