East Eric - (FR)

The inventive and rule-breaking approach of East Eric revolves around action. The basis of his practice is more than artistic strategy, and can be seen as a drive to transform. His work brings attention to new possibilities for dissidence through a relationship of forms and surfaces, which may be subtle, brash, romantic, rude, poetic, and at times, funny.

What may look like artistic pranks and products of mischief, serve a deeper purpose than laughter or adrenaline, entangling the question of contemporary art into an investigation of spiritual freedom that struggles with a shocking and aweful approach to aesthetics. His is the type of art that makes only unavoidable references to art history, finding liberty in the peripheries. Eric’s ‘Monochrome’ public painting series illustrates these characteristics in an almost violent, and potentially sublime way. If it is a public playground covered in tar black, a tree with the colors of a choral reef or a splotch of green, that moves from the floor, over a bench and up a wall; the images that represent the artworks’ legacy are breathtaking, which opens the artistic act itself to questions of ethics and ability. This series links to other ongoing works. From fire extinguishers to installing paint pumps on shoes or skateboards, East Eric’s production of images often begins with the creation of a new tool to deliver them.

In cases like his advertising sabotage sticker sets (1999) or his workshop at MU Eindhoven (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_OvoAE4vs8), we also see a willingness to share these tools and let others participate. His work has been exhibited in France, Italy, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands.