Of Listening and Painting
Of Listening and Painting, 09.11—17.12.2022, comprising 15 significant new works on paper and a suite of more miniature paintings, invites us to witness the act of listening through the art of painting. In his daily life, Erik Jeor seeks out silence, often in nature, where the noise of his surroundings confronts him. There, the artist encounters the subtle sound of ice, water, and fauna, allowing the Nordic seasonal characteristics to come to life.
Jeor's work introduces the notion that the paint is more than what it appears; it seeps through, building each shape on the paper. The paint is the basic form and is not limited by merely being one tool of many at the artist's disposal. Paint is the essential body within each artwork, and without dictating the process, Jeor's intention is ever present in each delicate dripping and brushstroke.
This new body of work conjures the feeling of being in a dreamlike state while simultaneously present. Jeor has explicitly bided his time, allowing each setting and each image to pervade his psyche. Jeor explores his relationship to belief and religion throughout his work, creating room for addition and sublimation in his painting and throughout his life. Picture and music all fall under the auspice of faith, an integral component of the artist's life, guiding his decisions and creating new avenues for the artist to explore.
Jeor paints earth, a new sky… While reflecting on history's great masters, melancholy builds in Jeor, often affecting his work. His paintings can record his surroundings and return their sound and silence, enabling earth to become an integral part of the act of viewership. It is as if Jeor intends those various states of being throughout the world to travel through the earth, allowing for a state of chaos from faraway places to become part of a shared experience, part of his narrative. Silence becomes more than just the absence of noise in the artist's work. The paintings conjure myriad feelings, mimicking bodies of emotion created from the memory of both loss and joy. They are imbued into our daily lives and then forgotten while allowing them to swell to the surface of our consciousness.
PRESS
14.11.2022 Om Konst ↗ Susanna Slöör
08.11.2022 Nöjesguiden ↗ Sara Bäckbro
09.11.2022 ArtNotes ↗ Malin Ebbing
09.12.2022 Konsthelg i Stockholm, Bbys Magazine — Barnebys.se ↗
