Abbie Schug is a visual artist based in Suffolk, UK. Her research considers the transfer, mediation and translation of visual data between painterly and digital interface-based medias. Particularly, data that visually refers to, or originates from, the human form. Recent works translate digital scans of single and double exposure polaroids, depicting a combination of both real people, and human-like computer-generated digital models.
Her process involves repetitively re-photographing a chosen source image of a “being” (real, or unreal) whilst it is present on a digital screen. The repeatition of data layering, degradation and distancing quietly induces distance between perceived realness and the data. At various points, the mediated data is translated into a painterly image – the current collection using charcoal and graphite. This final mediation introduces a biased handwriting and re-contextualises a fleeting digital image into an alternate, yet comprehendible, visual language. Creating both “life-size” figure translations of digital data and enlarged detail images blurs the boundary between human and other. Each translation is titled after the source image file as a trace of the unreal origin, and non-human genealogy, of the simulated form.
This practice began through theorising the components of how images appear on a digital screen – a projected light, triggered by digital code. The digital image is an untouchable being – one that is seen, but is not real. The interplay between using real and digital “beings” as a source explores the removal and simulation of tangible body; Further raising questions around corporeality, projection, blankness, boundaries, and perception for being. Schug’s works exist as a hybrid of painted, photographic and digital media; counteracting instancy and developing a conscious awareness of the inherent illusionism of image-making processes and its remnants.
EXHIBITIONS 2026 REMNANTS. The Bank Arts Centre, Eye
2024 TRINITY BUOY WHARF DRAWING PRIZE. London
SUMMER CONTEMPORARY. Britten Pears Arts, Snape Maltings
UNCONSUMED II. The Old Shoe Factory, Norwich
2023 INTERFACE. Asylum Studios, Bentwaters
FIGURE. The Bank Arts Centre, Eye
2021 EMERGENCE. Rise Art. Soho, London
2020 MK CALLING 2020. MK Gallery, Milton Keynes
2019 CONVERGENCE. MA Fine Art Degree Show. University of Northampton
MA FINE ART STUDIO SHOW. Avenue Campus, University of Northampton
INTERMISSION. Grosvenor Centre, Northampton
QUICKLY MOVING. NN Contemporary, Northampton
2018 CVAN PLATFORM GRADUATE AWARD. MK Gallery, Milton Keynes
RISING STARS. Coombe Gallery, Dartmouth
FREERANGE. Truman's Brewery, Brick Lane, London
DEGREE SHOW. Avenue Campus, University of Northampton, Northampton
2017 ROOTS. Avenue Gallery, Northampton
PUBLICATIONS 2022 Simulated: Quasi-Human Artefacts of Post-Digital Data Generation [Paper]
& TALKS Robinson, C. Painting, Photography and the Digital: Crossing the Borders of the Mediums.
Cambridge Scholars Publishing
2021 Simulated: Quasi-Human Artefacts of Post-Digital Data Generation [Artist Talk]
DigitalPaintingPhotography International Symposium
2019 The Artist and Herself: A Dialogue on Reflection
WithoutEnd Symposium 2019: Breaching Discourse. Postgraduate Research Symposium
AWARDS 2018 [Shortlisted] CVAN Platform Graduate Award. Nominated by MK Gallery
BIBLIOGRAPHY 2021 Thomas, D. Ferrer, S. Digital Life. VAINE Magazine, Issue no.04. August 2021
2018 Staff, C. Resurfacing the Past: Art-Historical Baggage, Painting and Pedagogy.
Teaching Painting: Teaching the New Conference. Royal Academy, London