Artist
Erin Curtis
Building Boom
Date2016
MediumAcylic on paper
Dimensions22 × 30 in. (55.9 × 76.2 cm)
Framed Size: 31 3/4 × 39 1/2 in. (80.6 × 100.3 cm)
Credit LineDC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Art Bank Collection
Object numberDCCAH2016.008
ClassificationsPaintings
Locations
- Currently Not on View
DescriptionThroughout the last ten years, my work has engaged in questioning the relationship between architecture and decoration, the hierarchies of gendered labor and how the literal and cultural landscape of built spaces reflects our fears and desires in a quickly changing, global world. Overlaying utopic ideals of beauty and structure with practicality and usefulness, my heavily patterned and colored works connect diverse, ornamental traditions with the practice of contemporary Western painting.
As an artist living and working in Washington, DC my practice is also influenced by the vibrant city around me, changing overnight as high rise condominium buildings spring up behind historic blocks of row houses and glass walled offices rise like ocean liners from empty lots. Also influencing my practice is the cultural wealth of the city, found in its wide tree-lined streets, proximity to the premier museums of our nation and a deeply diverse population that truly makes the district an international city.
My recent paintings are labor-intensive, with dense surfaces of cut and layered canvas that appear to be trembling and not quite stable. The finished works reveal a collision of layers and shapes coming together, similar to a visual puzzle, to form a dense surface that is both complex and exuberant.
