Katina Bitsicas is a Greek-American new media artist who utilizes video, installation, AR and performance in her artworks to explore grief, loss, trauma and memory.  She has exhibited worldwide, including The Armory Show, PULSE Art Fair, Satellite Art Fair, Superchief Gallery NFT, Plexus Projects, the Wheaton Biennial curated by Legacy Russell, CADAF: Digital Art Month Paris, Torrance Art Museum, Westbeth Gallery, New York, Eye’s Walk Festival, Syros, Greece, 57^th Dimitria Festival, Thessaloniki, Greece, HereArt in New York, Art in Odd Places in Orlando, Digital Graffiti Festival, and the St. Louis International Film Festival. In 2022, her artist book Luci: The Girl with Four Hearts was published with Flower Press.  She received her BA from Kalamazoo College, Post-Baccalaureate from SACI in Florence, Italy, and MFA from the University of South Florida. She is an Assistant Professor and Coordinator of Digital Storytelling at the University of Missouri, where she also conducts research with the MU School of Medicine on utilizing digital storytelling as a meaning-making intervention for bereaved family members.  This collaborative research has been published in Death Studies, OMEGA: Journal of Death and Dying, and the Journal of Social Work in End-Of-Life & Palliative Care.

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.