Eric Wall’s paintings explore the materiality of the canvas and challenge our expectations of what a painting is expected to be. His paintings are meticulously hand-cut using a hobby knife. A single painting is often stretched, painted, unstretched, hand-cut, painted, restretched, and painted again. They reach a state of resolution through this repetitive process of addition and subtraction. In the end, there is often more canvas removed, than what remains for the audience to the observer. The remaining swaths of canvas cast shadows on the walls behind.
Eric Wall has been challenging the boundaries of painting throughout his career. With his most recent paintings, he’s shown how to break the restraints of the surface and the supports in painting. He has also introduced an expansive potential in a painting by pushing these edges and questioning his medium.
Born in 1979. Eric Wall is an American-Swedish artist, currently living in Denver, Colorado.
Select solo exhibition: Avesta Kommuns Konsthall, Sweden; Bolt Project Space, Chicago; Villavägen Sju Galleri, Sweden; ISM Gallery, Denver; and Colorado State University.
Group exhibition: Westwerk, Hamburg; Green is Gold, Copenhagen; Cave Gallery, Detroit; Shoot the Lobster, New York; Lillstreet Art Center, Chicago; Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago; The Built Festival, Chicago; Galleri Ett Annex, Sweden; Galleri Linne, Sweden; Space Gallery, Denver; Assembly Art Space, Denver; The Den Gallery, Denver; Jack Curfman Gallery, Colorado; Colorado State University Directions Gallery, Colorado; and the Museum of Contemporary Art Fort Collins, Colorado.
His work has been covered in The Chicago Tribune, Crain's Chicago, Kulturstan, Chicago Artist Magazine, Detroit Free Press, and Matter Journal.