Visual Encounter: Erik Nieminen

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Erik Nieminen – Anonymous Reality

Man in the Mirror, 2007, oil on canvas, 142 x 97 cm, Copyright photo courtesy of Erik Nieminen

“The goal with the paintings is to create an alternate reality, one that may refer to our real world, but that also functions and a convincing space and situation all on its own.” Erik Nieminen's paintings create indeed an alternate reality that seems so random and in motion. They create an almost photographic contingency, like the German art historian Max Imdahl would say (see his essay on Degas' "Place de la Concorde” (1876), 1970). Distorted reflections on surfaces in modern urban spaces show people walking around, waiting at intersections, absorbed in thought - in interaction with others and in the same time isolated.

City Swish, 2010, oil on canvas, 142 x 203 cm, Copyright photo courtesy of Erik Niemine

Nieminen's urban spaces are all based on real ones. But as he states, he does not particularly care if the viewer recognizes a location – because his intention is not documentation. He says: “I’m interested in creating a situation, a condition that takes place on the stage created in the paintings. People might sometimes recognize a particular space as something they know, but I try to avoid making a painting of a location that makes it read as an icon. For example I would never paint Times Square by showing the usual view of the Coca-Cola ad tower, as that would bring the painting directly back to our world, and what I’m attempting to do is to create a unique world… like a theatrical stage set.” The paintings in the current show at the Karsh-Masson Gallery are based on locations from Montreal, Toronto, Paris, Ottawa, and New York.

Installation view, Karsh-Masson Gallery, 1st floor, Copyright photo courtesy of Erik Nieminen

Nieminen usually starts from a photographic source. As he says, he takes literally hundreds or thousands of photos of something on location. In a selection process, he then filters them down to a few dozen, and uses bits of information and imagery from several to create a whole. “Then, I take that information and make a drawing... sometimes loose, sometimes a bit more detailed, to make a new kind of space... changing perspective lines, warping, etc... then I go back to the digital images and try to (as best I can with my limited photoshop ability) manipulate my photos to get close to what I did in the drawing... then finally I start the painting (and it changes again during that process through the spontaneous decisions that are made along the way). The degree to which I edit or warp space depends entirely on the needs of each particular work.”

Installation view, Karsh-Masson Gallery, ground floor, Copyright photo courtesy of Erik Nieminen

I also asked him which artists influence his artistic style and approach:

“My influences are generally from artists who are concerned with space… with depiction. My original influences were the Italian Futurists, due to their interest in movement through space and their urban subject matter. Cubism interested me as well for similar reasons (the breaking up of space). David Hockney is someone who I’ve looked at closely, also because his main concerns are visual depiction and it’s relationship to photography. Also the works of other realist painters such as Edward Hopper, Robert Bechtle, Richard Estes, and Chuck Close. They all have a strong connection to photography, and I’ve always been attracted to their particular aesthetic.”

Flow, 2011, oil on canvas, 137 x 183 cm, Copyright photo courtesy of Erik Nieminen

But he also mentions that his main interest lies in painting, not so much in photography. He understands himself not as a good photographer; taking photos provides rather the pictorial model for his paintings.

Installation view, Karsh-Masson Gallery, 1st floor, Copyright photo courtesy of Erik Nieminen

The paintings in “Anonymous Reality” focus on perception of reflecting and semi-transparent surfaces that he transfers in an introspection. In doing so, he is reconfiguring reality in a surprising way. An impressive exhibit!