Statement: 

My artistic practice examines how economic systems, technological developments, and social structures shape how we understand the world. I am particularly interested in the tension between the ideals societies construct and the contradictions that emerge within them. Through painting, video, and installation, I explore the instability of these systems and how they shape our collective imagination.

Architecture occupies an important place in my work. Modernist buildings, idealized landscapes, and geometric structures become visual representations of our aspirations for progress, order, and stability. Yet beneath their apparent clarity, I introduce disruptions, fragmented perspectives, and overlapping realities that question the permanence of these ideals.

My paintings combine drawing, collage, print transfers, and layers of color to construct spaces that oscillate between representation and abstraction. I extend this process into digital animation, where architectural forms and landscapes shift, dissolve, and reassemble, bringing questions of time, perception, and technological mediation into the work.

Rather than illustrating specific technological developments, I use visual language to examine their broader social and psychological implications. My work invites viewers to question the structures that organize contemporary life, the futures we imagine, and the distance between our expectations and the realities we create.

Bio :

Emilie Duval is a French-American contemporary artist based in Houston, Texas. Working across painting, video, and installation, she investigates the relationships between technological change, economic structures, architecture, and contemporary society. Her work combines geometric abstraction, architectural imagery, and layered visual processes to examine the tensions between constructed ideals and lived realities.

Duval studied art history at the École du Louvre and law at Université Paris 1 in France. Her work has been presented in exhibitions in the United States, Canada, and Europe.

Recent solo exhibitions include In Digital Elysium: Architectures of a New Reality at Wright Gallery, Texas A&M University (2025–2026); Architecture of Digital Existences at Alliance Française de Houston (2025); exhibitions at Andrew Durham Gallery in Houston and Patrick Mikhail Gallery in Montreal (2025); and Future Paradise at Arts Fort Worth (2024).

Her work has also been presented at Luminaria Contemporary Arts Festival in San Antonio, Hollis Taggart in Connecticut, and other galleries and art spaces. Her professional practice includes public art projects and commissions for private and institutional settings.

EXHIBITIONS

Solo Shows

2027 Austin Library 

2025/26 Wright Gallery - Architecture of Delusion - Texas A&M College of Architecture

2025 French Alliance Houston - Architecture of Digital Existences

2025 Andrew Durahm Gallery - Silicon Dreams - Houston

2025 Gallery Patrick Mikhail - Landscapes of Digital Existences - Montreal, Canada

2024 Arts Fort Worth - Future Paradise - Fort Worth

2022 Gallery Patrick Mikhail - Computational Dust of Existence - Montreal, Canada 

2021 Gallery HVFA - The Order of the Simulation - Houston 

2019 The FWCAC - Now You know - Fort Worth

2019 HVFA - The Praxis of Blockchain - Houston

2017 The Order of the Flow - Brenham 

2017 Cindy Lisica Gallery - Order From Chaos - Houston
2012 House Gallery - Salt Lake City

2011 Galleri Urbane - Extremely Unlikely - Dallas 

2011 Darke Gallery - Extremely Unlikely - Houston 

2010 The Livingroom - Bunnies in Wonderland - Salt Lake City 

2008 BNIM - Houston 

2005 LAS Gallery  - Democracies - Paris - France

Group Shows

2026 Luminaria, San Antonio

2025 Marfa Invitational - Marfa

2025 Octavia Gallery - 2 persons show - Perception of Paradise - New Orleans

2024 Luminaria Festival - San Antonio

2024 Rothko Chapel support - McClain Gallery - Houston

2023 Luminaria Festival - San Antonio

2023 Vignette Art Fair, Dallas

2023 RO2 Art Chaos! 9

2022 Hollis Taggart Gallery - Dimensions - Southport
2022 Heidi Vaughan Fine Art - Fabulous - Houston
2022 Office Space Gallery - Life's a Glitch - Two Persons Show - Salt Lake City

2020 Gallery Patrick Mikhail - ABSTRAKSHN - Group Show - Montreal, Canada

2019 The Texas Vignette Art Fair - Curated by Leslie Moodie Castro - Dallas

2018 Observing the Invisible with Jan Rattia - Houston 

2017 France Pavilion - Yvonamor Palix Fine Arts - Houston 

2016 Holocaust Museum - Group Show - Houston
2016 Participating space Fotofest - Houston
2015 French Consul General Residence - Identity - Houston
2013 Sweet Regulations - Brussels, Belgium

2010 The artist guide to the L.A. Galaxy - Los Angeles

2010 White Box - SanctionedArray - New York City 

2008 HCP - Viewfinder - Arturo Palacios and Risa Puelo - Houston

2008 Hot in Town, Blaffer Gallery - Houston
2007 Stars and Spheres, Fleishman-Hillard - Houston
2007 Five x Seven, Art Jones Center - Austin
2007 Texas Biennial, Dougherty Art Center - Austin
2007 Center for Photography - Newspace - Portland
2006 Lawndale Art Center - The Big Show -Group Show - Houston
2006 Art Jones Center - New American Talent - Austin
2005 Pitch Gallery - Accrochage sur Demande - Group Show -Paris France

COMMISSIONS

2026 Chevron Headquarters Houston

2025 Houston’s new terminal D Gate D1 - Digital Convergences - Houston

2019 HAA - Caydon new building project at 2850 Fannin 

I regularly create commissions for private collectors

ART TALK

2019 Rice University - Economics, societal matters and algorithmic future in the creative process of visual art - Houston

2019 AWTY School - Economics and Structural Matters in Visual Arts - Houston

BIBLIOGRAPHY

2022 Essay: Computational Dust of Existence

2021 Houston Chronicle
2018 Women Cinemarkers Interview, Berlin
2010 Fotofest Vol.2
2007 New American Paintings, Western Region #72
2007 Cantanker, Michelle Dewey, March 2007
2007 Texas Biennial, Exhibition Catalog
2006 New American Talent, Art Jones Center, Exhibition Catalog 2005 Democracies, Lionel Aymeric Simon, June 2005
2004 50th Contemporary Art Fair of Montrouge, Exhibition Catalog

Education

History of Art - Ecole du Louvre, Paris France

Law - University Paris 1