I am predominantly a maker of works on paper. However my oeuvre expands to include paintings and sculpture, with varying stylistic out-put. I have several different bodies of works which I create simultaneously.
With this production, experiments and strategies on how to construct a painting lie at the heart of my making. An element of surprise is important. Mainly formally driven, I do not start out to implement specific meanings, however in sculptural ideas, I have observed themes of cruelty and a sort of parody thereof.(bludgeons; impalement stone)
The series of backwards/transfer paintings I started a few years ago, was initiated in that there is a liberty in painting on plastic, and then transferring it to a canvas support, without concern for final composition. I appreciate the poetics here, that the under-painting is now on the visible surface. As well, these paintings are simultaneously painting, print-making (transfer) and sculpture (casting of plastic surface).
My large scale diptychs on paper grew out of the idea of skewing the horizon line of 2 landscape-oriented works. Placing the 2 halves together also offers surprise in composition construction. I seek these to be a spacial field mirroring on a 1:1 basis the human form. Simultaneously micro and macrocosms, the surface is made active with varying textures and mark-making and visual time.
I am ultimately driven by formal decisions to decode meaning in the making.
My work is a kind of anti-design or pattern gone amok, with a flatness and pop sensibility. The obviousness toward the hand-made conveys a tactile world. The idea of surface as phenomena becomes more important as we move deeper into the habitual usage of the digital interface. I am lately inspired by textiles, ancient Asian art and texts, and observations in everyday life, the Heresford Mappa Mundi and California funk artists. Very recently a Japanese theme has emerged.
Constructions resembling kimonos, reinsert the use of textile influence. As well, they better consider 2-D form as sculpture, and the idea of surface of phenomena — particularly as the digital interface becomes more omnipresent.
Although I have not implemented a meta-narrative of meaning, I do seek to challenge, somehow, particularly for painters, an expectation of stylistic cohesion. I revisit themes and ideas and evolve on these in an unstructured time frame, over years sometimes, hence the wider circumference.
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CUSTOMIZED ALLOCATIONS
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REORDERS
Wines often sell out at or close to release, so we encourage making the most of your spring and fall allocations. As long as wine remains, you are welcome to reorder online through our EK Special Order store. Or contact John Gillis at john@erickentwines.com or 415.244.9453.
