B oots by Avery Singer articulates the artist’s highly original visual mode – a zeitgeist-defining contemporary sensibility that blurs the lines between painting and technology, digital and analog, genre and media. In Singer’s dexterously high-tech process, she employs sophisticated automation modelling software to create underdrawings and backdrops, and then airbrushes layers of images using a computer-controlled printer.

The resulting works evoke singular atmospheric spaces conjuring the digital realm; often with a matte or glossy finish, Singer’s paintings contrast the classical and the new, past and future, and geometric precision and organic forms. As Devon Van Houten Maldonado observes: “[Singer’s] nods to classicism and modernity add an interesting element of play with the history of painting and what it means – what it can be – in the digital age” (Devon Van Houten Maldonado, “Paintings that Become More Dynamic When Viewed Through a Screen”, Hyperallergic, 17 May 2017).

Born in 1987 in New York, Avery Singer has emerged as one of the most powerful contemporary voices of our times. In 2019, works by Singer were chosen by curator Ralph Rugoff to be shown in May You Live in Interesting Times at the Venice Biennale. “Is it digital art, is it analogue art?” Rugoff asked of Singer’s work. Singer herself has said: “I want to make work that explores something that I haven’t seen in painting before. I guess it’s really a question of being generational – making art that belongs to your generation in some way” (the artist cited in Taylor Dafoe, “At 31, the Painter Avery Singer is a Bona Fide Art Star. She’s Trying Very Hard Not to Let That Get in Her Way”, Artnet, 20 May 2019).

《靴子》模糊了繪畫與技術、數碼與模擬、類型與媒介、幾何與雕塑之間的界線，體現艾芙莉・辛格獨創的視覺模式，彰顯其敏銳的時代觸覺。辛格的創作過程盡現靈巧和創新的高科技，她利用精密的自動化建模軟件為作品創建基底圖紋和背景，然後使用由電腦控制的打印機在一層層圖像上噴施顏料。以如此先進技術創造出來的作品讓人聯想到奇異的大氣空間，彷似一片數碼領域；作品多呈啞光或亮光，表現出經典與新穎、過去與未來、精準幾何與官能形式的對照。如德文・範・侯登・馬爾多納多所述：「（辛格）對古典主義和現代生活的致意為畫作增添幾分趣味，她探索繪畫史之於現今數碼時代的意義和可能性」（德文・範・侯登・馬爾多納多撰：〈屏幕之中，愈發靈活多變的繪畫〉，《Hyperallergic》，2017年5月17日）。

艾芙莉・辛格在1987年出生於紐約，是當今世代最具影響力的藝術聲音。在2019年，辛格的作品獲策展人拉爾夫・魯格夫精心挑選，於享負盛名的威尼斯雙年展展覽「願你生活在有趣的時代」中展出。對於辛格的作品，魯格夫問道：「它是數碼藝術嗎？它是模擬藝術嗎？」辛格曾經說過：「我想創造的作品是能夠探索一些我未曾在繪畫中見過的東西。我猜這是關於時代性——創造出在某種方式上僅屬於自己的時代的藝術品」（引述自藝術家，泰勒・達福撰，〈 31歲藝壇明星——畫家艾芙莉・辛格，努力不讓名氣成為她的絆腳石〉，載於《Artnet》，2019年5月20日）。