André Hemer (born 1981, New Zealand) is a painter, whose work explores the intersections between digital media and painting. His interest in sampling digital media — including scans, found digital images or systems, and digital drawings — is born out of a desire to synthesise the concerns of the post-internet age with more traditional methods and techniques. Combining digital and traditional processes, Hemer sculpts images out of paint, which are scanned on a flatbed scanner. The scans are printed on canvas and function as an underlayer onto which paint is applied and the original sculpted paint is attached, creating a dialogue between material and image. His works embrace and reveal the transformations and transactions occurring between the contemporary digital image and the traditional painted object.
Read MoreHemer's work has been exhibited widely, with recent solo presentations including The Cobra Effect, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery (2018); The Imagist & the Materialist, COMA Gallery, Sydney (2018); Making-Image at LUIS DE JESUS, Los Angeles (2018); Day Paintings, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland (2018); IRL, Yavuz Gallery, Singapore (2017); and New Representation, Chalk Horse Gallery, Sydney (2015). His work has also been shown at a range of art fairs, including presentations at Art Basel (Basel); Art Shanghai Contemporary Fair (Shanghai); and Manila Art Fair (Philippines), and in group presentations across Asia, Europe, and the U.S. In 2017, Hemer was awarded a six-month residency at the International Studio and Curatorial Program in New York. He received his PhD in Painting from Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney, Australia (2015) and his MA from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand (2006), including a Postgraduate Research Residency at the Royal College of Art, London (2006). Hemer is currently based in Vienna, Austria.
Text courtesy Hollis Taggart.
