Erik Reel at Frameworks
Face to Face Exhibit up Through November 1
Tuesday,
October 21, 2008
By Ashley Olive
In his current show of paintings at frameworks, Erik Reel explores
the depths of the human experience. The artist was inspired by the expressions on the faces of people stripped of material
possessions, and something of that spiritual intensity comes through in his work. “Like soldiers coming back from war,”
Reel said, “or people who’ve experienced immense loss, there is a gauntness there, a waning, a sense of other-worldliness.”
Reel explains that the recurring images of faces, many of which seem
to resemble women, are not meant to be male or female, but simply to conjure a presence. “I see them as archetypes for
people to see within themselves — a reflection of everyone’s male and female component — that place that
exists inside everybody,” Reel explained.
At first glance, Reel’s paintings and prints may seem simple
or even elementary, but on closer inspection, his craft shines through. In these paintings, Reel uses interference colors,
which break up the light such that parts of the image appear on different levels. This distortion is subtle yet effective,
unsettling the viewer and evoking emotional responses.
"Looking Out", original serigraph on Basingwerk Heavyweight paper,
18 x 11 inches (paper size: 22 x 15 "), 2008
In a recent gallery walk-through with the painter, I asked him to identify
his primary artistic goal. Reel said he hoped “for the viewer to sink down into themselves in a really deep way, experiencing
a level of ruthlessness without having to experience immense loss. It’s about getting down to the truth: no illusions,
no wishy washy buffers. The more that we could be woken up in that direction, the more conscious we could really become, and
that’s true political art.”
Reel knew he was an artist at nine years old. "I was always drawing,
and from the very beginning I mixed drawing and painting media,” he said, a habit that remains central to his work today.
While Reel considers painting his main medium, he also produces original
silkscreen prints or serigraphs. Printmaking has fallen out of popularity over the years as traditional serigraph inks easily
mar and scratch, making for a quickly corroding final product with a shorter life span than a painting. The inks Reel uses
are exceptionally permanent and dry to a hard, film-like surface, avoiding the traditional problems. These inks have also
been developed so that a high degree of translucency is possible, letting light penetrate into the ink layer, thus avoiding
the flat, dull look of traditional serigraph inks, creating a rich color and depth comparable to acrylic and oil paintings.
"I use a lot of medium and very little
pigment so the light goes through the pigment layers and bounces around,” Reel explained. "I want as much depth to the
color as possible.”
Reel discovered this technique with Santa Barbara
screen printer Earl Arnold of TableSalt Press. The pair succeeded in creating an exciting series of images that quickly gained
national recognition. Their first edition made it into the prestigious Society of American Graphic Artists (SAGA) annual New York City show in 2004, the first time in its 76-year history anyone
from the Central Coast of California had done so. Despite his international recognition, Reel prefers to paint in his studio
in Ventura, his home base since 2006.
Reel has shown his work in museums and galleries throughout the world
and has had more than 11 solo shows in Santa Barbara, including multiple shows at the Universtiy
of California, Santa Barbara Faculty Club, Delphine Gallery, FrameWorks-Caruso/Woods Fine Art, and Roy.
