The Hole is proud to present “Command Field”, a solo show of paintings and installation by Anne Vieux. She was featured in past group exhibitions at the Hole that looked at how digital tools are shaping traditional painting; this will be her first full exhibition at the gallery.

Vieux works in the great tradition of artists who use tools wrong. Innovation through misuse is a key part of how artists are responding to technology, and here the artist starts by confounding the CCD array of a scanner by training it on holographic paper. The light source of the scanner explodes the spectrum of the paper and the lens records an other-worldly topography of insane colors and shapes.

This raw material of beautiful randomness is augmented and enhanced then printed onto suede. On top of this background of reverberated rainbows Vieux paints in airbrush, acrylic and gel medium to hand-tool some photoshop vibes into the piece. Mimicking both the brush shape and the tool’s effect, Vieux paints a visual analog to the healing brush tool across the works.

In augmenting the digital print Vieux carefully mimics both the digitally-dictated design of the piece and the logic of digital tools. Viewers often cannot tell what parts she has painted and what have been printed and that is partially the point; in printing onto a tactile material and altering the piece by hand with a digital mindset, the artist seeks to blur the tenacious privileging of hand-done over computer-composed. Both types of crafting require skill, intuition, creativity; a sense of form, color and composition. The beauty of a malfunctioning scanner is the inspiration for these intuitive and luminous wall works; what matter who’s painting?

Anne Vieux (b. 1985, Michigan) received her MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art and her BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute. Recent shows include “A Space For Thought” at Brand New Gallery, Milan; “Tennis Elbow” at The Journal Gallery, Brooklyn; “Unfamiliar Again” at the Newcomb Art Museum, Louisiana; “Mesh” at Annka Kultys Gallery, London.

Email raymond@theholenyc.com for more information.