Eric Blum mines the indeterminate area on the periphery of what is actually seen. His monochromatic paintings of ink and beeswax on silk employ create transparent, collage-like layers — ink permeating silk in soft gradients that abruptly meet the defined edges of his revisions. Overlays of varying opacities form a fragmented patchwork of shapes that hint at recognition, neither entirely legible nor genuinely abstract, reflecting his ongoing interest in the unreliability of perception.
To reduce the friction of conscious decision-making, Blum begins each painting with a blind selection — an initial drawing from an arbitrarily chosen source — confining all further transformations to within its framework. He then rotates, flips, tears, excises, and splices, unearthing layers beneath and producing unexpected juxtapositions. The process is as reductive as it is additive, accommodating the tension between an exhibitionist's flirtation with too much and a minimalist's compulsion for order and calm. His original elements are reshuffled into a kind of visual anagram — a "misunderstanding," as he calls it — no longer resembling its own preconception.
Eric Blum is a recipient of two grants from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, as well as one from the New York Foundation for the Arts. His work has been featured in shows at the Albright-Knox Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, the Knoxville Art Museum, and The Contemporary Art Center of Cincinnati, among other institutions. Eric Blum currently lives and works in New York City
Eri c Blum is represented by Kathryn Markel Fine Arts, with gallery locations in Chelsea, New York City - at 529 West 20th Street and 179 10th Avenue. Hiswork is available for purchase through the gallery and on Artsy.