Pioneering digital artist Auriea Harvey alchemizes the physical and the digital in her forthcoming Feral File solo exhibition, Gray Matter

Feral File is thrilled to present Gray Matter, an online exhibition by Rome-based artist Auriea Harvey curated by Gaia Bobò. Opening on November 10, 2022, this digital solo show displays a series of eleven sculptures originating from scans of physical works by Auriea and assemblages of previously discarded fragments and 3D prints. Auctioned pieces are accompanied by a physical bronze sculpture and all works come with suggested 3D-printing instructions.

Alluding to the basic elements of “making”, dark sculptures rotate in space, emerging from an analogous gray background. These fragmented works challenge the historical perceptions of what constitutes sculpture. Refusing to be locked in the static vitrines of the screen, these malleable-looking works encourage the viewer to interact with, touch, squeeze, and explore. Like clay, Harvey’s use of polygons, the building blocks of every 3D model (the faces, edges, and vertices of the sculptural form) configure work with the malleability of traditional materials. Here, the video game designer-turned-sculptor explores “interaction design and the borderline of depiction between the living and the inert”, bringing those traditionally physical elements from classical processes into the virtual realm, ‘digital matter’ versus tangible materiality. 

Mythology, classicism, Hellenistic art, and technology are reflected in this amalgamation of the ancient and the modern. In AlleuliaAlleluia an alien-Romanesque angel appears to descend from a spaceship. In another, a fragmented classical-style bust is complemented by a glowing flame from a central eye. These new works are a continuation of Harvey’s process, often triggered by the scanning of physical elements, from found objects to bodily forms–her own portrait is visible throughout the series. 

Harvey begins her sculptural process by making scans from life. These scans mutate as they are combined with others from her extensive library; 3D models based on her own clay sculptures, works of imagination digitally sculpted, and artworks encountered in museums. This is the inexhaustible loop of translation. As Auriea molds the works, she also molds characters each with their own narratives. Her sculptures make her influences evident and she fuses them with her creations to reinvent, reinterpret, and retell.

Auriea Harvey (b. 1971, Indianapolis, IN) received a BFA in Sculpture from Parsons School of Design, has attended numerous residencies and research fellowship’s around the world and now lives and works in Rome, Italy.  Harvey’s work can be found in the permanent collections of the Walker Art Center, Buffalo AKG Museum, Kadist Foundation, RF.C Collection  and Rhizome’s Net Art Anthology. Her video games and VR works have had international success, including exhibitions at the Tinguely Museum, Basel; the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; the New Museum, New York; Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York; and ZKM, Karlsruhe.