Katina Bitsicas is a Greek-American new media artist who utilizes video, installation, projection mapping, AR, photography, and performance in her artworks to explore grief, loss, trauma and memory. She has exhibited worldwide, including The Armory Show, Candela Books + Gallery, Plexus Projects, Wheaton Biennial curated by Legacy Russell, CADAF: Digital Art Month Paris, Torrance Art Museum, Hatch Art Center, Eye’s Walk Festival, 57th Dimitria Festival in Thessaloniki, HereArt, Art in Odd Places Orlando, Digital Graffiti Festival, Indie Memphis Film Festival and St. Louis International Film Festival. In 2022, her artist book Luci: The Girl with Four Hearts was published with Flower Press. Notable residencies include Open Air Media Festival, University of Arkansas-Fort Smith Windgate AiR, UCSF Library, LSU School of Veterinary Medicine, Atlantic Center for the Arts, Prairie Ronde, and Hinge Arts at the Kirkbride. Katina received her BA from Kalamazoo College, Post-Bacc from SACI Florence, Italy, and MFA from the University of South Florida. She is an Associate Professor and Coordinator of Digital Storytelling and Associate Director of the School of Visual Studies at the University of Missouri, where she conducts collaborative research with the School of Medicine and College of Health Sciences utilizing digital storytelling as a meaning-making intervention for bereaved families and mental health promotion and policy. This research was published in Death Studies, OMEGA: Journal of Death and Dying, and Journal of Social Work in End-Of-Life & Palliative Care and funded by the Institute for Supportive Care at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

In my creative practice I explore personal loss and trauma through video, installation, photography and performance to make parallels between these experiences.  My multimedia works revolve around the theme of bringing back to life, while the afterlife is still looming near.  The overarching theme is how we as humans can connect via shared experiences and make meaning of these experiences.  Metaphors, such as red thread, are used as symbols for loss and the longing for connection.  Often times these works are created or installed in the natural environment, making parallels between the human body/systems and these unseen systems/structures within nature.  I see the power in nature being able to bear witness to the remnants of these life experiences.

Another part of my research is providing Digital Storytelling workshops to individuals who are recently bereaved as a meaning making intervention.  Participants create their own digital story projects using both archival and newly created images to make meaning of their loss.  This research is funded through BJC Hospice in St. Louis and the University of Missouri Department of Family and Community Medicine. Through this research, I am able to see direct results with the participants and myself through the power of storytelling and art; mediums that I also use to process my own traumas.