Today we’d like to introduce you to Sophie Auger

Hi Sophie, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?

I started making art when I was 17. In Quebec, we have a different school system, with high school ending in 11th Grade; then we go to CEGEP, a sort of specialized Associate’s degree, after which some people go to University. After high school, I applied to a graphic design program in CEGEP. I didn’t get in, so I turned to studio art, which wasn’t as hard to get in. I am so glad I didn’t get in the graphic design program!

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?

Well, after that, I got a BFA in Studio Arts and Print Media in Montreal at Concordia University. Getting out of undergrad was hard, with maintaining the practice and having multiple part-time jobs, but nothing unusual for an artist. After a few years, I applied to the Visual Art program at Rutgers Mason Gross School of the Arts. I didn’t get in. But I got a letter from Rutgers MFA in Design program, offering a big scholarship.

Since I was 17, my work has always been at the intersection of Art and Design; I faced successive rejections and acceptances from both design and art schools. I truly do not care about the distinction between art & design anymore, but I did during my school years. It was a struggle to situate my work within the two- but I’ve accepted that it sometimes uses both, concerns both, and I use their contexts to my advantage. Right now, design and art are separate in my practice: I work as a designer for the Brooklyn Rail, and on my own art practice in the studio.

During my MFA, I used to ask visiting designers and artists with interdisciplinary practices where they situated their work. The best response I got was from Prem Krishnamurthy, who said something like “it depends on the opportunity”. I think it meant that it depends on the grant/show/award/conference one wants to get or participate in. But that there is no difference in nature between Art & Design: it’s their applications that are different.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?

A recent thing I have been working on: I wrote a sci-fi illustrated story that was designed by the New York studio The Aliens and is published by Quickbooks. It will be launched in July at Index Space in New York.

Can you share something surprising about yourself?

That I wrote a sci-fi that will be published, in July.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sophieauger.com/
• Instagram: @pistis_sophia
• Other: https://making-form.rocks/