How does an artist advance a medium that’s been around for millenia?
In her Mott Haven studio in the Bronx, artist Avery Singer perfects a personally developed technique that mixes traditional methods with digital processes and pushes her paintings into new terrain.
“You can take traditional tools and employ them in the way that they’ve been intended to be employed for five-hundred years, and then in the next hour incorporate some kind of new technology,” says the artist. ”The juxtaposition of all these things produces meaning.”
On top of conventional gesso-primed canvases, Singer uses masking tape and an airbrush to realize designs she’s intricately constructed using the 3D modeling program SketchUp. The resulting black and white paintings feature androgynous robot-like figures caught up in opaque narratives inspired by art world tropes: a studio visit, a projectionist’s booth, a slide lecture. Her bravura mixture of styles and techniques seem to reference painting’s entire modern history, from surrealism to Cubism to Russian constructivists like Naum Gobo. Singer hopes the works point to painting’s still unexplored potential by looking both back to the past and forward, to the multiple possibilities of the future.
Learn more about the artist at:
https://art21.org/artist/avery-singer/
“New York Close Up” Series Producer: Nick Ravich. Director: Jarred Alterman. Editor & Cinematography: Jarred Alterman. Sound: Evan Messaros. Design & Graphics: Open & Urosh Perisic. Artwork Courtesy: Avery Singer. Composer: Wesley Powell. Additional Music: Muciojad. Thanks: Gavin Brown’s enterprise, Thor Shannon. © Art21, Inc. 2017. All Rights Reserved.
“New York Close Up” is supported, in part, by The Lambent Foundation; public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; VIA Art Fund; Lévy Gorvy; and by individual contributors.
TRANSLATIONS
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33 comments
So many great artists a lot older, don't even get their work looked at by this gallery.
When she says that she get's basic line and detail work from the computer, she leaves out the incredible and most difficult part, which is the perspective and shading. Consider the immense sophistication of the projected shadows she uses, all of which are performed by the AI. She'd have to be a mathematical genius (as was Escher) do compute the necessary calculations in her own head.
The issue here is that what impressed me was actually the calculations executed by the computer. To give an analogy, it's like someone sharing a piano sonata, and what really impresses us is the speed and dexterity of the playing. However, it turns out, that was all done by the computer. So, there is a question of what the computer is doing and what the artists is doing, and which part is the more impressive. With the piano sonata, if the composition, harmonies, and so on are what impresses, the computer can be irrelevant.
That said, her commitment to reproducing these computer-made images is itself impressive, and the results are fantastic. She is also responsible for the compositions, which are excellent. In this case I credit her with manipulation of the program, and execution of the physical painting. But, Escher did it without the computer. I wonder if she could make similar images without relying on a 3D program to do all the difficult math.
A difference here is when I first saw them I was shocked, even intimidated by her visual intelligence. But now that I know she used Sketchup, well, with a little practice, I could do something similar. It wouldn't be easy, because she has a very fine aesthetic, but it's gone from beyond my capacity to, "Oh, well, she does that very well, but now I can see how it's manageable", and to be clear, this is only important because it was initially the beyond-my-ability element of it that so impressed me. THAT part was generated by the computer. Nevertheless, I really love the painting of the two figures at a table. It's a really fine achievement. I'll withhold judgement, and wait to see how she develops. But I am no longer blown away.
Well, on second thought, her manipulation of the program(s) in question seems very impressive and individual, and the execution and scale are also very sophisticated. So, might still be blown away, but not completely. Again, I wonder what would happen if she didn't use the program. Might be worth doing some experiments.
My art and blog: https://artofericwayne.com/
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