Eric Blum creates abstract compositions through a layered, intuitive process of adding and subtracting thinly inked sheets of silk to panel. Between each layer Blum seals the silk with beeswax. As he works, the compositions, initially based on a loose drawing, change and darken. Working on multiple paintings at once, Blum’s practice relies on process as he covers and uncovers, overlaps, cuts, and turns the panel in different orientations. The resulting moody, often monochromatic abstractions are Blum’s way of capturing the unknown. In the artist’s own words. “I grope around for something unfamiliar to my own eye, as if made by the hand of a stranger, with equal parts awkwardness, serenity, subversion and evocative inscrutability.”
Light and dark are at the heart of Blum’s visual language making the paintings feel connected to photographic or optical imagery. The work in this exhibition has more color and larger central forms than in previous paintings. In some, colored inks bleed together whereas in others, deep colors formed from the overlapping of many layers contrast with sheer, light shapes. The paintings with less or light color are airy and fresh; their fractured forms more graphic. The wax creates a texture and depth to the surface and along with the deep colors and fluidity of ink creates a feeling of looking up from underwater.
