Eric Hongisto
Eric Hongisto
Workspace Program Resident 2000
The opportunity to work in a different medium was great —it will remain in my artistic vocabulary.
—Eric Hongisto, 2000
Over the years, Eric Hongisto has made site-specific installation pieces by painting directly on walls and floors, incorporating a variety of medias to realize his artistic endeavors. His work explores his interest in space and how architectural illusion sare created in the mind. The final outcome demonstrates that his artwork is not necessarily an object but more so an undefined space—it is less tangible, more of a theatrical experience.He is interested in representing the notion of change overtime in the mind of the viewer. Color and form help communicate these ideas through his questioning of their functionality.
For his work at Dieu Donné, Hongisto layers a variety of colorful pigments on to abaca paper to produce paper wads and balls for works resembling a gumball machine, marbles, or a Twister game board gone amok. He has configured a site-specific installation in line with what he calls “plants or stars, and simultaneously, microcosms of cells, quantum worlds.” Coming from a background in painting, Hongisto is drawn to how that medium “may feel like if it were allowed three dimensions”.
About the Artist
Eric Hongisto received a BFA in Painting from Maine College of Art and a MFA in Painting and Printmaking from Yale University School of Art. He has exhibited widely, and has received awards including a Smith Material Grant, Nathaniel Saltonstall Memorial Fellowship from Skowhegan, and an Elizabeth Canfield Hicks Award from Yale University. He has been published widely, and has had numerous reviews, including from the New York Times and the Village Voice. (Source: Bellwether)