Aude Verbrugge
Born in 1987, in Gien, France
Lives and works in Brooklyn, NY
Aude Verbrugge’s practice centers on architecture as an emotional, psychological and spiritual structure, and an access to the immaterial.
Her work begins with the constructed world—interiors, buildings, furniture and infrastructures—but uses it to approach what is not visible. Architecture is not simply a subject or setting. It becomes the tangible form through which inner experiences and less explainable forces can be perceived.
Beneath the surface of human spaces, different realities seem to circulate. What exists within the self—trauma, sexuality and anxiety—blends with what remains hidden within reality: energy, waves, transmissions and forms of presence that resist representation. Emotions become spatial, while metaphysical phenomena become intimate and emotionally charged.
Working through distinct series, Verbrugge begins each body of work with a particular kind of architecture. Modernist interiors, domestic rooms, lobbies and infrastructures become empty vessels, shells and instruments, that are holding what usually remains under the surface. Her spaces are usually empty of human figures, yet they seem to keep the pressure of an event: something has happened, is occurring beyond sight, or is about to take place. Absence activates the architecture.
Drawing from architectural, cinematic, scientific, religious and mythological sources, Verbrugge constructs spaces that appear realistic but remain subtly off. Perspectives shift, reflections and inversion introduce another version of the room . Situated between the archaic and the futuristic, these spaces belong neither to the past nor the future.
Writings, sculptures and installations extend this inquiry. Texts approach the same questions from another direction, while furniture-like sculptures and architectural elements reflect the painted spaces and create places from which to contemplate them.
Across her practice, architecture becomes a place of meditation and reflection, where inner and outer realities meet. Her work asks whether the material world is only a membrane, and what might appear when its surface begins to open.
Education
2011 Master’s Degree in Fine Arts, Ecole Supérieure des Beaux Arts, Montpellier, France
2009 Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts, Ecole Supérieure des Beaux Arts, Montpellier, France
2005 Bachelor’s Degree in Modern Literature, University Paul Valery, Montpellier, France
Exhibitions
20226 Group exhibition “In Celebration of Shadows”, GRIMM Gallery, New York, NY
2025 Group Exhibition “Fragment in Our Home”, Apt 49c, New York, NY
2023 Residents exhibition, Saturn’s Return, San Juan Islands, WA
2022. Two person exhibition, “Last Song, Lost Thoughts”, Railroad, Brussels, BE
2020 Group exhibition “Wide Open”, BWAC, Brooklyn, NY
2019 Group exhibition “Show your World”, Gallery MC, New York, NY
2019 Open Studios, Bushwick Open Studios, Brooklyn, NY
2019 Group exhibition “Priority Mail Biennale” at Ground Floor Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2019 Group exhibition “Now is the Future” at Local Projects, Long Island City, NY
2011 Solo exhibition, ESBAMA, Montpellier, France
2010 Group exhibition “Temps Reels” at FRAC LR, Regional Fund of Contemporary Art, Montpellier, France.
2008 Video projection at the Concert for the Centenary of the birth of Olivier Messiaen, Conservatory of Music, Montpellier, France.
Awards / Residency
2023. Artist in Residency, Saturn’s Return, San Juan Islands, WA
2020. Award for “Architectural”, Artrepreneur, 1st prize.