Eric Friedmann, New Paintings For Athens

Eric Friedmann 

New Paintings for Athens

November 9 - December 15, 2018

IFAC Athina

International Fine Arts Consortium and IFAC Athina present Eric Friedmann in his premier solo exhibition in Athens with a new series of paintings and drawings inspired by the philosophical détournement of desire, emotion, and knowledge which are used as points of departure into the dialogue of the urban landscape.

Friedmann’s work encourages the viewer to question their place in the late post-modern Odyssey. This conceptually extends beyond the locality of Homer’s poetic myth and the historical footnote of Plato’s totalitarian romantic illusion or the transcendental ideal. The artworks help us to rediscover a liberating solace buried just below the surface, not exactly imitations of imitations in a nonsensical art world framework but still ruins upon ruins upon ruins non-the-less still waiting to be discovered like a recurring dream or memory.

The figure and ground alternate and inherently possess us to continue on the quest for meaning. The mark making is sometimes crude and immediate, seemingly naive, but given further time and consideration you understand the confidence and precision the artist uses to engage the viewer in each work. The totality of the exhibition allows for a potentially infinite number of interpretations and provide us with a complex narrative texture to explore. Friedmann’s artworks, akin to the New York School, extract a rawness and authentic freedom through his process and assist us to access our direct experience of natural truths and to awaken from the dogma of 20th century art.

Eric Friedmann (b.1961) is a painter and sculptor based in New York. He graduated summa cum laude in fine art and existentialist philosophy at Ithaca College, and later attended the School of Visual Arts. Since 1992, Friedmann has split his time and practice between New York, Germany, and Switzerland. His work focuses on the structures and systems of thought, and their simplification for a greater understanding of contemporary archaeology as it relates to current philosophies of art, politics, and feminism.