CONTEMPORARY ART IN CONTEXT

MOMO PIXEL  MULTIDISCIPLINARY ARTIST, VIDEO GAME DESIGNER, AND ART DIRECTOR

As the art form of video gaming has evolved, so too has the perception of video game designers as artists. Rooted in the long-standing belief that art can positively enhance society, multidisciplinary artist Momo Pixel emphasizes through her games that she wants to contribute to making the world better. A video game designer, art director, and advertiser, Momo is best known for her works centering on Black women. Her unique experiences and enthusiastic outlook have inspired a commitment to using games for good.

Momo Pixel is experienced in a wide range of fields, including game design, art direction, personal branding, and storytelling. She is passionate about using games to affect positive social change while still embracing the joy of play. Her projects address themes such as Black history, mental health, and data policies. She believes that the combination of art and technology can provide a learning experience that is aesthetically pleasing.

Selected Artworks
There is an undeniable joy in Momo’s works, particularly in her use of color, which she equates with freedom. Her inclination toward gradations of color is visible not only in her art but also in her personal style, including her hair.

Her affinity for color is evident in Hair Nah, a game she designed in 2017 that went viral internationally. The game was prompted by her experiences in Japan, Cuba, and Los Angeles, where she routinely encountered strangers who attempted to touch her colorful braids. The game centers on a Black woman who must avoid unwanted attempts by strangers to touch her hair. It took Momo nine months to design, and although she had only been making pixel art for two months, she had over ten years of experience working with pixels in analog formats. The game is fun yet thought-provoking, highlighting a common problem faced by Black women.

Hair Nah, along with works such as Wonder Shibuya and Ramen, features a brilliantly colored, pixelated style reminiscent of 1980s video games. The same exuberant use of color shapes her immersive project Momoland (2020), an installation that blends an art gallery of her paintings and sculptures with a fashion show and pop-up shop.

Art History: Video Game Design
The earliest video games were developed in the late 1940s and 1950s, though they were system-specific and could only be played on the computers for which they were designed. Spacewar! (1962), developed for a mainframe computer at MIT, became one of the first games to experience widespread distribution through early downloading. By the 1970s, designers began creating video games for small coin-operated machines, leading to the rise of video arcades. After the introduction of programmable microprocessors in 1972, video game designers ushered in the golden age of arcade games (ca. 1978–1982). The late 1970s also saw the emergence of online gaming.

As video games became more popular, there was a push to bring them into people’s homes. In 1983, as home computers became more affordable, computer gaming increased significantly. Some mobile phones in the 1980s included built-in games, though mobile gaming did not become widespread until the 2000s with the advent of smartphones. VR games emerged in the 2010s. Momo’s fabulous body of work is a tribute to the rich history of video game art.

About the Artist
Momo Pixel (born early 1990s) is a native of Kentucky. She has described a lonely childhood, noting that the Internet—where she became active around 2009—offered an accepting space for her unique personality. She loved playing video games, often at a cousin’s house since she did not have her own console. Her favorite was Pandora Box 4S, which included 800 pixelated games. She graduated from the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2015. Momo later worked as an art director for an advertising company, contributing to campaigns for brands such as Nintendo, KFC, and Instagram. She eventually left advertising to pursue her art career full-time. Today, Momo is an active speaker, renowned for her authenticity and positive attitude, and her experience in gaming and advertising encourages audiences to become the “author of their own story.”

ARTIST Q&A
What are some of the biggest influences on your work?
MP: Some of the biggest influences on my work are anime, fantasy novels, video games, life, and myself.

Number one would be anime. I’m enthralled with the color schemes, the line work, the dedication, and the time. The attention to detail and hidden meanings and themes... It is such a beautiful medium and I always feel blessed to come across another one. It makes me want to create characters with that kind of vibrancy and story. [Getting] the eyes to sparkle, their hair to be an extension of the character’s persona as much as their facial expression... JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure has some of the most dynamic character designs and I obsess over them.

Video games, of course, are another influence. Kirby! The simplicity yet magicalness of the world and characters. I always get joy from them, and they have been a part of my life since I was young.

Honestly, anything magical and otherworldly. I grew up watching Winx Club, The Powerpuff Girls, reading Harry Potter and Artemis Fowl. I love imagination and things that make me think outside the box—things that make me learn their rules and understand the realm in which they live.

I have yet to uncover all the things I am going to be inspired by. It’s exciting to realize that. Sometimes unexpected encounters with people, or a trip to another country, can spark something within me. A seed of an idea is planted. I love it all. It’s so fun to be inspired and find new influences, while also knowing that I am the constant denominator within it—that I will always be inspired by myself, my thoughts, my interests, my dislikes. It’s a grand thing to find inspiration within and beyond yourself.

What is a typical workday like for you?
MP: Well, no day is typical. However, on client work days, I wake up, stretch, work out, shower, check emails to see if I missed anything, get dressed, and then head to a café. Sometimes I go to a favorite spot, but lately I’ve been exploring and trying to go to various ones to keep me focused on the work.

Sometimes my work is more design-focused, so I’ll have a drawing tablet and music going as I work. Other times it’s conceptualizing or writing. And sometimes you just need to get out of your head and get inspired. Sometimes that is my day—I go find a place that will help me think past my current thoughts and ways.

On personal art days, my morning begins the same—stretching, working out, journaling on the balcony. Deep breaths, then work! Sometimes I watch anime to put me in the creative feeling. If it is a beadwork piece, then I’ll put on some music and begin working. It’s a long and patient process, so I am usually easygoing and in my zone. My thoughts clear and my hands move.

However, if I am focused on digital design, it involves more mental thought and I can get restless. I sometimes work fourteen-plus hours straight between everything. My personal art days are definitely more relaxed while still focused, unless I am creating a sculpture or large physical piece. Haha, then in that case, it is a lot of moving, lifting, pausing, and asking myself, “Why did I make this so big?!” I love it.

Do you have specific strategies, rituals, or routines that help you work and/or generate ideas?
MP: I’d say my main strategy is to “surround myself with myself.” My home is a shrine to who I am and who I want to be. I make sure to fill it with things that bring joy, spark excitement, and genuinely make me smile for no reason.

I find this helps when I am thinking. Input, output. What goes in comes out. So if I am always surrounded by and taking in colors and joy, that is what will naturally come out. Everything from what I watch to what I eat and wear affects this. I can see the effects of this in my work often. Even my newest furniture piece has influences from things within my home.

A great example: Earlier this year I spent three months designing, building, and painting myself a closet. I wanted something just as magical as my outfits—a place I could house fifteen-plus wizard and witch hats, lolita dresses, goth dresses, with cat and bunny ears—and have it make sense. What can I create that feels like everything inside is whimsical? I took my time and really honed in on the simple things I like. The final result is exactly as I imagined it. It’s really cool to see the inside of my mind outward.

The sparkles I designed for the closet ended up inspiring the sparkle accents on the base of the furniture piece I finished. I was so excited to see that thread of connection.

What is the most influential source of inspiration for your non-figural characters in your designs (such as “Scooper” in Google Doodle)?
MP: That’s a good question. I’d say the most influential source of inspiration for creating non-figural characters in my designs (for clients) is the brief. The brief is a great North Star to use. It generally provides the limitations and freedoms of what you can play with.

For the Google Doodle that honored Jerry Lawson, an amazing pioneer of video games, I had a multitude of inspirations. However, the first inspiration was the brief. This Doodle in particular was being released for Mr. Lawson’s 82nd birthday. As I researched more about Mr. Lawson, allowing the information to marinate, I wanted to incorporate celebration as a feeling along with my own style and interests. This led me to lean into the birthday aspect. Birthdays are filled with sweets, joy, and lots of color—this wasn’t far from how I already love to create.

From there I organized lists of things I’d love to create in a Birthday Sweetness–themed game. Scooper was born from the idea of personifying the birthday elements. What if ice cream could move and explore this fantastical world around it? The ears and other elements are a part of my natural aesthetic. I wear cat and bunny ears often in my everyday attire, and I feel they heighten the cuteness of characters.

I also was influenced by Kirby. The round bounciness of Scooper thrust me into memories of Kirby and their bouncy, adorable self. If you look at the game you can see how it translates. I often look forward to projects where I can explore ways to make nonliving things adorable. It’s a great challenge and I love creating irresistible characters.

What inspired your exploration of the inappropriate act of touching another person’s hair in Hair Nah?
MP: I had received a brief that asked, “What are the stresses that Black women face, and how can we address them?” My immediate thought was that I was tired of my hair being touched. At the time I was living in Portland, and it was two and a half years of people crossing my boundaries nonstop. My lived experiences there are what inspired Hair Nah.

I had never experienced my hair being touched before I moved. It was a culture shock for me. I was bewildered by the action and the constant disregard for me as a human. I think sometimes when we are having life experiences we may think it is only happening to us alone. But around this time, Solange had released her phenomenal album A Seat at the Table. One of the songs on the album is about not touching her hair, and I realized that it wasn’t just happening to me. It was encouraging and let me know there was a place for this game—others would understand.

I found videos from all over the world of other Black women experiencing the same thing and speaking on it. Travel videos across social media showed strangers reaching out to touch, sometimes out of curiosity, admiration, or joy, but many other times with entitlement and disregard. All of this allowed me to create a fully rounded statement with this game.

If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself as an emerging artist? Or, what advice do you have for young aspiring artists?"
MP: I think I would just tell my younger self to keep the belief in herself. That I am that I am. To always trust her gut. She deserves great things. Don’t question abundance. I wouldn’t want to tell my past self more than that because I don’t want to change the past. I have a fantastic present and future. I wouldn’t want to change anything—just give myself more of a pep talk and stronger sense of self.

My advice to younger artists would be the same: trust yourself. Really believe in what you feel and want to create. Don’t always seek outside validation. If you do that, everything you do will be chasing them—other opinions—instead of chasing you and what you want. Youʼve got it if you want it. It is already inside you; just let it out, even when you don’t feel like it.

Work toward your goals. Every step, even a baby step, is a step forward. It is hard work, and some days you may be sad, you might even be doing it by yourself. But you can have what you want. Believe in your current self and your future self. Youʼve got this.

What are you working on currently? Can you share any upcoming projects with our readers?
MP: Yes! I am being commissioned to create a video game for the Bozar Centre of Fine Arts in Brussels, Belgium. I am so excited! I’ve created games for some wonderful people and companies before, but this is my first museum-commissioned video game art piece. The exhibition, Picture Perfect, will debut March 7th. I am overjoyed to be able to be an artist in this way and to be part of a great show. It’s beautiful, absolutely beautiful.

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Written by Karl Cole, Art Historian and Curator of Images at Davis Publications. kcole@davisart.com