Art Exhibitions
The Reckoning
Erin Lonergan
Opening Reception
Friday, January 19
6-8pm
On view January 19 - March 30
Artist Statement:
Painting has always been my way of communicating my inner self to the world. I chose painting for its fluidity and the feeling of the brush gliding over a flat surface, I work mainly in oil painting and gouache. Throughout my painting career, I have touched on many different subject matters, from landscapes, unmade beds, explosions, and the human form. Within this large range my goal is to
remain contestant to my personal perspective both visually and emotionally. I am fascinated with finding the uncomfortable places within our human experience.
While exploring this uncomfortableness I have found it exists in the most peaceful places. If it is not the angle of a skyscraper, the documentation of unmade beds during a pandemic, to a Polaroid of an individual’s most intimate parts. I expose the honesty that most want to avoid.
“The Reckoning” is combination of two separate projects, the first is The Archival Genitalia Project and second, which will be shown in its completion, “Debauchery”. This series is a key hole view into intercourse. As a child raised in an Irish Catholic family there was an underlining fear of sex that has remained in my core. Religion has been a topic of importance to me as I dive deep to understand my perspective, separate from it and understand its influence on the attitudes of sex within American society. I touched on the topic in the past with my performance and visual work with “The Archival Genitalia Project” in 2002.
There will be 36 drawings displayed from the completed series, “The Archival Genitalia Project”. This project began on Valentine’s Day 2002, at the underground art party space, Rubulad in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The core of this project is a collection of Polaroids that took a year and a half to gather. This research was based on volunteer involvement with no requirements. A two and a half foot by ten-foot booth was built for the privacy and comfort of each person involved. They were free to pose and expose themselves in their own individual way. A window with a curtain was also included within the booth with the option to open by the volunteer to expose their experience to the crowd if they desired. A representative explained the projects intent before they met the with artist to have their photo taken. The volunteers were free to talk about anything that was on their minds and encouraged
to express their feelings about their experience, some individuals chose to stay silent. It took anywhere from five minutes to a half hour to complete each photo session.
There are two hundred fifty-two volunteers, only one photo was taken of each person with a Polaroid Joy Cam camera and there were no copies made of the photos. Every photo was documented with a 4” x 4” drawing and the original Polaroids were sown together to create twin size quilt.
This is a direct statement on sexuality with in the United States, filling the void of loneliness through sex, multiple partners, and masturbation.
Bio:
Erin was born and raised in the Adirondack State Park in Upstate New York. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Castleton University in Vermont, with an intensive study in Painting at the Burren College of Art in Ballyvaughan, Co. Clare Ireland, where her work began to take an intimate role in her life. A Fine Arts education gave Erin the foundation necessary for conceptual exploration into her own artwork, but gave her the curiosity to delve into the intimate corners of self and explore relationships within the spaces that surround her - the spaces where uncomfortable peace can be found.
This study of hidden worlds led Erin to work as a muralist and decorative painter for ten years. Her deep understanding of the effect of interior and exterior environments on our everyday lives allowed her to create spaces and tell stories.
Her work has been published in numerous publications and garnered national press coverage in the world’s top interior design magazines. Erin has shown her work for the past 30 years in numerous group and solo shows, Satellite Art Fair in Miami, internationally and throughout the United States and New York City. She lives and works from her Brooklyn home.