Studio Update: WAVES series

I kept pretty busy through the winter prepping for this moment. The next collection of work is complete and ready to share with the world. It feels like I have been treading water for months battling all sorts of internal and external storms that have come my way…making sense of it the only way I know how.

Peace to all those that understand that in order to remain connected you have to remain in a state of vulnerability.

And without further ado, I am delighted to share this with you.
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WAVES

Recent Work by Erik Otto
May 2019

Solo Exhibition: Fall 2019 / NYC (details TBA)

ABOUT THE WORK

Expressing the understanding of instability and uncertainty through patience and resilience, this work is about an outlook of acceptance as a means of moving forward. Known as the force behind all living things, this recent work explores the many symbolic qualities of water through nonlinear landscapes flooded with movement and free of boundaries. Compositions immersed with emotive strokes — pushing, pulling, pouring and taking shape depict the balance of turbulent and serene. The circular form, a signature motif representing the notion that life is both coming and going, emerges and recedes from view similar to the shifts in passing seasons.

Heavily layered, this work incorporates pools of color, fluid washes and rippling patterns contrasted by large expressive marks produced almost incidentally. Seeing imperfection as a catalyst for change, the different painted elements ebb and flow respectively in equal force reflecting moments of a transformative process. One chapter of a larger idea with an open-ended finish line, this initial phase has helped cultivate a new visual language directly influenced by the equilibrial nature of water that examines a moment of flux to a powerful time of growth.

SELECTED ARTWORK