Vickie Vainionpää

Montreal, Canada, 1992

Vickie Vainionpää is known for her generative oil paintings that use code as a medium to create infinite relationships between diameter, curve and entanglement. Her softly textured, organic shapes fold and twist on themselves to create biomorphic forms that are non-representational yet familiar. Using data from many sources, the artist's oeuvre began with an investigation into randomness and its relationship to abstraction. More recently, her research has included eye-tracking software in order to examine and respond to historical works of art. Vainionpää has participated in group shows at Perrotin, New York, X Museum, Beijing, China and The Margulies Warehouse, Miami, USA. Recent solo exhibitions include Metamorphoses at the historic site of The Museo Belvedere di San Leucio, CE, Italy, Gaze Paintings at Olga Korper Gallery, Toronto, Canada, Software at The Hole, New York, as well as a solo presentation at NADA Miami, USA.

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My practice considers the impact of technology on the process of painting and investigates the relationship between natural forces and digital processes. In my Soft Body Dynamics series, twisting, tubular forms are systematically created using generative 3D modelling software, which are painted by hand using oil on linen. These shapes curve, fold, and morph in ways reminiscent of limbs, intestines, or cellular organisms. By embracing new digital means of reading space and content, the works draw attention to the ever-changing relationship between the human body and digital technology. In my latest body of work, Gaze Paintings, I use data from eye-tracking software to directly visually map data points in 3D space. What does it mean to look at painting? The Gaze Paintings ask precisely this question. Unique, curvilinear forms are generated each time the script is run. Eye tracking records subjective vision. In this case, my own vision as I look upon canonical works by painters like Rubens, Tintoretto, Bronzino, and others. Throughout history, painterly tropes such as the reclining nude have been intensely tied to the male gaze. These works subvert such traditions by mapping my own gaze and translating it into an abstract representation of viewership. By deepening visual pathways and penetrating beyond the flat surface of the picture plane, this process reveals hidden internal logic unique to each painting.