AVERY SINGER

Early Years

Singer was born and raised in New York City to artists Janet Kusmierski and Greg Singer, who named her after the painter Milton Avery. Growing up in a creative community in downtown Manhattan, she experimented with photography, film, and drawing from an early age but did not initially consider painting her primary medium. Singer studied at the Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main in 2008 and received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Cooper Union in New York in 2010. She continues to live and work in New York.

Avery Singer Artworks

Avery Singer’s artworks are characterised by their innovative use of 3D modelling software and computer-controlled airbrushing, merging digital and analogue techniques to interrogate the boundaries of contemporary art. Her practice explores the intersection of technology, modernism, and the realities of artistic life, often with irony and humour.

Early Digital Experiments and The Artists Series

Singer’s breakthrough came after experimenting with Google SketchUp, a 3D modelling programme, which led her to create digital illustrations that she then rendered on canvas using airbrush techniques. Her early works, such as those in her first solo exhibition The Artists (Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler, Berlin, 2013), parody stereotypes of artists and the art world, using constructivist-inspired forms and a grisaille palette to dramatise and satirise creative life.

Exploring Art Historical References and Digital Identity

Singer’s paintings frequently reference art historical movements, including Constructivism, Futurism, and Cubism, while also engaging with the aesthetics and logic of digital software. Works like Sad Woman Projecting Libidinal Thoughts (2014) and Untitled (Monday) (2017) depict figures constructed from geometric data, blurring the line between the virtual and physical. In her 2019 commission for the Museum Ludwig, Singer created a seven-panel painting that evokes a three-dimensional digital world on a two-dimensional canvas.

Further Developments and Narrative Works

Singer’s recent works have expanded to include complex narratives and reflections on identity in the digital age. For her exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, she created paintings featuring figures sourced from commercial 3d model vendors, set against the backdrop of New York in 2001, exploring themes of trauma, memory, and coming of age. Her 2023 solo exhibition, Free Fall, at Hauser & Wirth, London, revisited her personal experiences as a teenager during the events of September 11, 2001, blending autobiographical narrative with digital aesthetics.

Awards and Accolades

• Prix Jean-François Prat, 2017.
• Youngest artist signed to Hauser & Wirth (2019).
• Works held in major collections including the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Whitney Museum of American Art, Tate Modern, and Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.

Exhibitions

Avery Singer has been the subject of both solo and group exhibitions at leading institutions worldwide.

Solo Exhibitions

• Museum Ludwig, Cologne (2019)
• Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne (2017)
• Secession, Vienna (2016)
• Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2016)
• Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2015–16)
• Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin (2015)
• Kunsthalle Zurich (2014–15)
• Hauser & Wirth, New York (‘Reality Ender’, 2021)
• Hauser & Wirth, London (‘Free Fall’, 2023)

Group Exhibitions

• Venice Biennale (2019)
• Lyon Biennale
• New Museum Triennial
• Art Basel Statements (2015)

Website and Instagram

Avery Singer’s website can be found here and Avery Singer’s Instagram can be found here.

Critical Reception

Singer’s practice has been covered in leading publications including Artnet News, Artforum, Frieze, and Ocula. Artnet News notes, ‘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.’

Avery Singer FAQs

Ocula | 2025