Tara Youngborg (b. 1989, Towson, MD) is a Maryland-based artist, educator, curator, and arts administrator. She holds a BA in Art and Art History from St Mary’s College of Maryland and an MFA in Studio Art from Towson University. Her work uses digital technologies to create video and audio compositions that are combined into immersive installations that explore place, memory, and technology. She is also the manager of the Stamp Gallery and Studio A at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she directs the exhibition and educational programming and advises the Contemporary Art Purchase Program. Youngborg is a 2025-2026 Jack Straw New Media Gallery resident, was awarded second place for the 2025 Trawick prize, and was an Artist-in-Residence at the St Mary’s College Artist House. She has presented her work in exhibitions at the George Washington Carver Center for the Arts and the University of Mary Washington Media Wall, and in group exhibitions in the United States and abroad.
My installations, video, and interactive electronic artworks are rooted in questions of how our technological processes reflect human experience. I use digital technologies to respond to ideas around specific sites, and the ways that physical and digital worlds interact and overlay. I first conduct research and collect archival or scientific records, take video and auditory field recordings, and then use technological processes—handwritten computer programs, machine learning, the glitches resulting from file compression, and video or audio editing software—to translate and interpret the information about the site. They then are incorporated into the art installation as non-linear, abstract light and sound pieces where space, time and memory are compressed, layered, and translated. The physical installations include video projections, custom electronics, and materials that both reflect and let light pass through them, such as chiffon and plexiglass.
The work asks the viewers to spend time deciphering and unpacking meaning to the point of discomfort, and to consider our assumptions that underlie the ways these technologies are built and discussed.
Upcoming Exhibition
Our annual group exhibition debuts the work of distinguished 2025–2027 fellows. In this presentation of new.now., each artist’s work conveys a sense of adaptability; some take on an active exercise in troubleshooting.…
