Since 1978 Erik Hanson has been trying to make phenomena lay flat and sit still within the 4 corners of a picture frame. An autodidact and transdisciplinary artist, Hanson is constantly learning new mediums and using them to record ethereal experiences.
In his first exhibition at Rock-it, Minneapolis in 1978 Hanson showed photographs of Homes lit in a dramatic theatrical way as a response to the physical and mental abuse families can inflict inside. Then moving to New York in the 1980s Hanson made idealized photographic portraits of men with dad bods and bears and used these photographs on mobile’s so the men were forever pursuing each other.
For his first New York solo show at Esso in 1997 Hanson exhibited photographs of music, smells and other ethereal phenomena, Hanson continues this project recording his experiences listening to music and smelling smells through other mediums like painting, drawing sculpture and needlepoint in addition to photography.
Awarded a residency at cite des artes in Paris, 2006 Hanson decided to teach himself how to paint, he already had some experience with the medium from his job at Goldsmith mannequin factory painting the faces from 2002 to 2006. Again his experience of listening to music provided the content For his paris experiments which were exhibited at Eleven Rivington in 2008.
Hanson focused on durational-based artworks creating the book “one year of playlists” also 2008 which featured drawings based on the music he had listened to in the previous year. In 2016 Hanson created an exhibition titled “One year of looking” a group show featuring 68 artist based on conversations he had with them while looking at art during the previous year.
In 2017 Hanson had a revelatory experience when a friend had sent him an image of his childhood cartoon crush, Bluto it was like a Pandora’s box opened and all of the feelings he was not able to name as a child became real and poured out as 230 paintings exhibited at Marlborough Contemporary, NYC in “Two Years of Bluto”, 2019.
After an absence during lockdown Hanson returned to the studio in May 2020 and intuitively started painting flowers because they made him happy. “One Year of Flowers “ 40 flower paintings were exhibited in the Richard Rodgers Amphitheatre at Marcus Garvey Park, NYC in October 2021.
Hanson is currently concerned with making oil paintings of objects that reference non visual sensations and as a record of his state of mind during their making.
