Past Exhibition:
LOREN ERDRICH
Online Viewing Room:
LOREN ERDRICH
September 3 – December 3, 2020
The Untitled Space is pleased to present an online solo show of works by artist Loren Erdrich curated by Indira Cesarine. The online exclusive is premiering on September 3, 2020 and will be on view through December 3, 2020. New York based artist Loren Erdrich explores through mediums of painting, sculpture and her latest “Isolation” drawings a personal universe which is soft, subtle, and venerable, while equally emphasizing the strength and fluidity of her favored element, water. Her mysteriously romantic portraits of humans, animals, and environments let the imagination flow.
Loren Erdrich received an MFA from the Burren College of Art at the National University of Ireland, a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania. She has been awarded residencies at the Jentel Foundation, Burren College of Art, Santa Fe Art Institute, thrice at Art Farm Nebraska, Sculpture Space and the Vermont Studio Center. Notable accomplishments include publication in ARTMAZE Mag’s Autumn Issue 14, and exhibitions with Proto Gomez and Field Projects in New York, Wasserman Projects in Detroit and The Delaware Contemporary in Wilmington. Erdrich frequently collaborates with the poet Sierra Nelson, coauthoring the award winning “I Take Back the Sponge Cake” (published by Rose Metal Press) and “Isolation” (forthcoming in 2020). Erdrich lives and works in New York, NY.
Loren Erdrich “Night Kissing II” 2019 – Water, organic and synthetic dye on canvas – Dimensions 20 x 21in
“Emotion is a liquid or liquefying substance that pours into a person and dissolves him.” – Anne Carson
Loren Erdrich “Sufficiency” 2020, Watercolor and acrylic on ceramic – Dimensions 5 x 5 x 9in. More Info
“Let the body think of the Spirit as streaming, pouring, rushing, and shining into it from all sides” – Plontius
Loren Erdrich “One Great Beastility (Dyptich)” 2019 – Water, raw pigment, organic and synthetic dye, ink, and colored pencil on muslin – Dimensions 24 x 19in each panel
Loren Erdrich “All Fizz No Fizzle” 2019, Water, raw pigment, organic and synthetic dye, ink and colored pencil on canvas – Dimensions 27 x 25in. SOLD
“Water, the ultimate disobeyer of boundaries, takes a primary material role in my process – synthetic and organic pigments and dyes are applied unbound, mixed solely with water, to paper, canvas and other fabrics. Forms return to the third dimension through air dried ceramic works painted with water-based media. Whether it be clay, paper or fabric – the rigidity of the pigment, medium and ground is destroyed by the water. Amidst these destabilized boundaries forms emerge, all the while appearing to move towards dissolution. I savor the push/pull between deliberate and unintentional movements.
Loren Erdrich “Inheritance” 2020, Water, raw pigment, synthetic dye, ink, colored pencil and watercolor on muslin – Dimensions 30 x 24in. More Info
Loren Erdrich “Me And You At The End Of The World” 2019 – Water, raw pigment and organic and synthetic dye on muslin – Dimensions 20 x 24in
Loren Erdrich “Me, Myself, Pretending Not To See” 2019, Water, raw pigment, and organic and synthetic dye, ink and watercolor on canvas – Dimensions 48 x 36in. More Info
“My relationship to and physical use of media has become content: water gives rise to a world that celebrates fluidity. I lean towards moments which dissolve the separation between outside and inside, me and you, this world and the other-worldly. This type of vulnerability is usually at odds with a society dependent on boundaries to maintain order – and I know this firsthand. Bodies that menstruate, give birth, are penetrated and suffer metamorphoses have long been portrayed as porous and mutable to the point of seeming monstrous.
Loren Erdrich “No Regrets For Me” 2018, Water, organic and synthetic dye on canvas – Dimensions 13 x 12in. More Info
Loren Erdrich “Firecracker” 2017 – Water, organic and synthetic dye on paper – Dimensions 22 x 30in
Loren Erdrich “After Juliet” 2018, Water and organic dye on canvas – Dimensions 14 x 12in. More Info
“Thus my work imagines a present day in which softness and vulnerability are venerated instead of shamed. I reconsider porousness and pliability as potential forces of possibility, strength and even protection. Hybrid figures (human/animal/environment/other) find a comfortable foothold here. Each piece resides on a threshold – a merging point of interiority and intersubjectivity, of desire solicited and desire articulated, of existence and extinction. Viewers are invited to straddle worlds – outside the world as we know it, and inside the sense of water dissolving the distance between things.”
– Loren Erdrich
Loren Erdrich “The Long Year Remembers You” 2019, Water, organic and synthetic dye on canvas – Dimensions 13 x 11in. More Info
Loren Erdrich “Totem” 2019, Watercolor and acrylic on ceramic – Dimensions 6.25 x 6 x 2in. More Info
“Though I work often with clay and it comprises a fair part of my studio process, I’ve only infrequently had regular access to a kiln. Being well versed in the DIY art life, at some point years ago I began to work with air-dry clay. This had the upside of eliminating the firing process which meant I could work on pieces from start to finish within my own studio. I realized I could create a water-tight barrier with acrylic paint before painting each piece with watercolor and dye as I do on canvas. I have since begin to think of these sculptures as three dimensional paintings, since the clay acts really as a support and most of the detail and texture comes from the paint.”
Loren Erdrich “Cross Pollination” 2019, Watercolor and acrylic on ceramic – Dimensions 4.25 x 6.25 x 2.75in.
Loren Erdrich “I Forget All That Came Before and All That Will Come After“ 2019, Water, organic and synthetic dye and raw pigment on canvas – Dimensions 13 x 11in. More Info
Loren Erdrich “Your Face Is Bangin” 2018, Water, organic and synthetic dye on canvas – Dimensions 12 x 13in.
Loren Erdrich “Wet As A Weapon” 2019, Water, raw pigment, organic and synthetic dye and colored pencil on canvas – Dimensions 24 x 19in. More Info
“A few years ago I began painting with unstable organic pigments – pigments made from sea snails, lapis, poppies, turmeric, etc – mixed solely with water. Though their light fastness was in question, the pigments were extraordinary. On paper, the color would shoot over the page – it felt as though the brush, the pigments and the figures preceded me. When I began to work on canvas again I searched for different media that would give me similar effects, or better effects that were a few degrees off of what I could achieve with the organic pigments. Now I incorporate synthetic pigments and dyes, also mixed solely with water. Each painting in some way has relied upon water’s destruction of the stable boundaries of my chosen ground.“
Loren Erdrich “Eating It” 2018, Water, raw pigment and organic and synthetic dye on paper – Dimensions 15.7 x 12.7in (framed). More Info
Loren Erdrich “Fitting In” 2019, Watercolor, acrylic and relief paste on ceramic – Dimensions 2 x 7.75 x 2in.
Loren Erdrich “This Mad World” 2018, Water, raw pigment, organic and synthetic dye, watercolor and ink on canvas – Dimensions 12 x 9in. More Info
Loren Erdrich “Ah The Truth” 2020, Water, raw pigment, organic and synthetic dye and watercolor on canvas – Dimensions 50 x 40in. More Info
“I have an innate attraction water—it’s figured large in my dream life since I was a child. I’ve always understood and respected its immense power. As a medium, I think the draw has to do with its resistance to control. When a medium is harder to control, I am forced to remain looser, which in turn allows space for the magic of unintentional movements to occur. Its resistance of perfection, tightness and mastery is invaluable to me. I love how it can be both hard and powerful, and soft and giving, and that it is comfortable in that duality.”
Loren Erdrich “Ever And Ever” 2019, Water, raw pigment, organic and synthetic dye, ink and colored pencil on canvas – Dimensions 25 x 25in. SOLD
Loren Erdrich “The Gatherer” 2019, Watercolor and acrylic on ceramic – Dimensions 3 x 4.5 x 3.75in.
Loren Erdrich “What Could Be Simpler” 2020, Water, raw pigment, dye, colored pencil and watercolor on canvas – Dimensions 46 x 32in. SOLD
“At some point in my practice I began to realize that the qualities I valued in a medium mirrored what I sought as content. People would ask me what my work was about and to answer I would launch into an explanation of the way raw pigments and dye behave when mixed just with water. I fell in love with how unstable it all seemed, how I would have to corral the water, pigment and dye and coax them into recognizable forms. And that even after hours of coaxing I always had to submit to the natural drying process that occurred and shaped the final product.“
Loren Erdrich “Sleep” 2019, Water, raw pigment, watercolor and synthetic dye on muslin – Dimensions 40 x 36in. More Info
Loren Erdrich “I Will Try Hard Not To Be Bad Again“ 2019, Water, organic and synthetic dye on canvas – Dimensions 12 x 14in.
Loren Erdrich “Repose” 2016, Watercolor and ink on paper – Dimensions 30 x 22in. More Info
“At some point in my practice I began to realize that the qualities I valued in a medium mirrored what I sought as content. People would ask me what my work was about and to answer I would launch into an explanation of the way raw pigments and dye behave when mixed just with water. I fell in love with how unstable it all seemed, how I would have to corral the water, pigment and dye and coax them into recognizable forms. And that even after hours of coaxing I always had to submit to the natural drying process that occurred and shaped the final product.
Loren Erdrich “Leaky Vessel” 2019, Watercolor and acrylic on ceramic – Dimensions 8.75 x 3 x 2.5in. More Info
Loren Erdrich “Seance” 2020, Water, raw pigment, synthetic dye and colored pencil on canvas – Dimensions 22 x 24in.
Loren Erdrich “Sexo” 2018, Water and organic dye on canvas – Dimensions 21 x 20in.
Loren Erdrich “Discarded Disguise” 2016, Watercolor and acrylic on ceramic – Dimensions 1.5 x 2.75 x 1.75in.
“I felt as though I continually straddled control and mayhem, that at any minute it could teeter one way or the other. This mirrored my content. I have always sought out that moment in a transition or a transformation, when instead of being one thing, or the other, you are both. And that space of both is often gorgeously wild and powerful. It’s not a comfortable space. It’s messy. It’s a merging point. Instead of the either/or, it’s the and. It’s a space that has the power to topple a world of pre-fixed categories and societal rules.”
Loren Erdrich “Leak” 2020, Water, raw pigment, synthetic dye, colored pencil and watercolor on canvas – Dimensions 19 x 16in. More Info
Loren Erdrich “Our Turn” 2018, Watercolor and acrylic on ceramic – Dimensions 1.75 x 6.5 x 2in.
Loren Erdrich “Wet As A Weapon II” 2019, Water, raw pigment, organic and synthetic dye, and colored pencil on paper – Dimensions 12.5 x 9.5in. More Info
“This intense period of life, as the world deals with Covid-19, has had the unexpected benefit of showing me what’s really important. What I value more than any finished product is my physical practice. Throughout the lockdown in NYC I came to my studio to step away from the panic. During this period I stopped critiquing and censoring what I produced – I enjoyed myself. When drawing I was able to step away from the storylines imposed by the world at large and absorb myself in something I chose. The resulting body of work is a series I call Isolation Drawings.“
Loren Erdrich “Veil (Isolation Drawing 27)” 2020, Colored pencil and watercolor crayon on paper – Dimensions 18 x 24in.
Loren Erdrich has been awarded residencies at the Jentel Foundation, Burren College of Art, Santa Fe Art Institute, thrice at Art Farm Nebraska, Sculpture Space and the Vermont Studio Center. Recent notable accomplishments include publication in ARTMAZE Mag’s Autumn Issue 14, and exhibitions with Proto Gomez and Field Projects in New York, Wasserman Projects in Detroit and The Delaware Contemporary in Wilmington. Erdrich frequently collaborates with the poet Sierra Nelson, coauthoring the award winning I Take Back the Sponge Cake (published by Rose Metal Press). She holds a MFA from the Burren College of Art at the National University of Ireland, a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania. Erdrich lives and works in New York, NY.
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