AMoCA Collection | Medicated Goo, oil on canvas, 120” x 96”, 2003
RAIR | 2002-03 (see also 2014-15)
Eric Sall | Tulsa, OK
Eric Sall was born and raised in South Dakota. He received a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University. Sall has attended the Marie Walsh Sharpe Space Program in Brooklyn, NY, the LMCC Workspace residency in New York, NY, the Roswell Artist-in-Residence Program, Roswell, NM, and the Yale Summer Program of Music and Art, Norfolk, CT. He is the recipient of an Art in Architecture commission from the General Services Administration, a Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant, a Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Fellowship, a Charlotte Street Fund Award, and a Painting Fellowship at the Grant Wood Art Colony at the University of Iowa. Collections include the Saatchi Collection, Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Anderson Museum of Contemporary Art, University of Iowa Museum of Art, and the General Services Administration. (Bio from RAiR 50th Anniversary catalog, 2017).
"I am interested in making paintings that are essentially 'abstract', yet reference 'real' world imagery at the same time. I arrive at the imagery of my paintings through a balance of making deliberate shapes and spontaneously painting gestural marks in an expressive manner. This balance of distinctive approaches to making a painting is rooted in my passion of the process of painting itself, specifically a passion for making rich fields of color, a keeness for painting straight lines, and a strong desire to 'muck' things up by pulling paint across the surface with various painting knives and brushes. Although the process is similar in each painting, it is my intention to make each individual painting unique, as an entity with its own characteristics. As a result, some paintings seem figurative, some look like specific objects, some have a serious tone, while still others seem comical. At times seemingly random, the compositions in my paintings are well scrutinized over and often reference historical as well as contemporary art pieces that I may have a certain affinity for. As of late, that has meant incorporating an almost ever-present horizon line, which introduces the idea for a figure-ground relationship to the otherwise entirely abstract image. Ultimately, I'm looking for an image that is challenging not only for myself, but more importantly for the viewer."
Roswell Museum and Art Center
Rair exhibition • Eric Sall "The RAiR Paintings" August 16 - September 14, 2003
