Emilie Duval’s Wright Gallery Exhibition Examines Abstracted Midcentury Modern Architecture
The artist's 'Digital Elysium' exhibition continues through Jan. 15 at Wright Gallery.
An exhibition showcasing the work of artist Emilie Duval continues through Jan. 15 at Wright Gallery in the Langford Architecture Center, Building A.
Hosted by the Texas A&M College of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts and the College of Architecture, “In Digital Elysium: Architectures of a New Reality” includes paintings, sculptures and animations.
Through this exhibition, the artist explores tension between physical and digital entities in her scenes of abstracted midcentury modern architecture, and bright landscapes with mountains and palm trees.
“My ‘Digital Elysium’s’ stage features serene landscapes that invite active visualization, so the digital elements, glitches and computational repetitions become perceptible,” Duval said. “Through my paintings and animations, I construct new societal existences that cultivate skepticism, and ask you to decode the physical and the digital at the same time.”
The Houston-based Duval was born in Paris and studied law and art history at the Ecole du Louvre and the University of Paris. Her work has been showcased in solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States, Europe and Canada, and featured in the Houston Chronicle, New American Paintings magazine and Art Houston Magazine.
In 2024, Duval was commissioned to create large-scale, site-specific paintings for Terminal D at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston. Her current exhibition “Architecture of Digital Existences” is on display at the French Alliance in Houston through Dec. 19.
Rebecca Pugh, M.F.A., instructional assistant professor and Wright Gallery curator, said she is excited to feature an artist who blends art and technology in her work. During the exhibition’s artist talk event on Nov. 12, Duval shared her thoughts on perception and how to utilize digital tools like artificial intelligence.
“She has a unique concept of using abstracted midcentury architecture and paradise landscapes to blur what’s real and virtual,” Pugh said. “It was great to watch short video clips of her works in process, highlighting the artist’s hand and labor involved in creating her paintings.”
