ERIC NIEBUHR
BIOGRAPHY
Born in La Marque, TX in 1972, American-Australian artist Eric Niebuhr has lived in Houston, London, Los Angeles and Sydney before moving to Hong Kong in October 2012. He held his first solo exhibition in Hong Kong in 2015, and has shown internationally including the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London and the Jewish Museum in San Francisco. In addition to receiving reviews in numerous publications including Artforum magazine and The Los Angeles Times, he has had recent interviews in Artnews, The South China Morning Post, Reuters TV, and a RTHK Hong Kong Heritage radio program.
My paintings are based on gouache and computer-aided studies of photo-based and digital sources. I use acrylic with a combination of mediums to create puddled areas of paint, amorphous passages, and flat shapes. I often have an emotive direction in mind, but hope to create an image that lends itself to indefinite readings. I am interested in the abstract formal qualities that the source and the paint material offers, as well as the psychic impression or suggestive visuals derived from the original source.
The “Dragon Holes” paintings are formally and thematically inspired by a unique Hong Kong architectural feature, “dragon holes”; a Feng Shui design concept for a building to have a passage (hole), in order to allow a dragon to pass through freely. The colors and forms on the facades caused by the atmospheric effects at different intervals of the day offer the formal elements I use in constructing the painting. I became interested in exploring the idea of these building’s framing of space, especially in relation to the historically use of the void in painting and the concept of a portal, which could transport the viewer from one space into another.
Chance and circumstance is something that continues to be a strong pull for discovering visual sources. My current developing series reference trolley pushcarts used for transporting goods and rubbish on the streets of Hong Kong. The improvised use of materials to bundle objects on the carts become the composition source for color, line, and shapes in the paintings. I first encountered a particularly striking trolley cart walking around the streets of Hong Kong. The arrangement of bungee cords, ribbon, fabric and rope on the cart created an uncanny moment that stopped me in my tracks. After that unexpected encounter, I began purposefully looking at the backs of trolley carts as accidental abstract and expressive compositions, making an effort to find ones that seem to have their own individual expressions.
EXHIBITIONS
Solo or 2 Person
2018 A Juxtaposition in Fate(Iv Chan and Eric Niebuhr), Art-at-Residence, Hong Kong
2015 Dragon Holes, Ka Kee Gallery of Objects, Hong Kong
2014 Transience, Emma Fordham and Eric Niebuhr, Emma Fordham Studio, Hong Kong
2012 The Devotionals, Damien Minton Gallery, Sydney, Australia
2011 Not Found, MOP, Sydney, Australia
2007 Stan Kaplan and Eric Niebuhr, Mary Goldman Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2006 Lonely and Free, Spring mural for Marvimon, Los Angeles, CA
2005 Still Missing, Mary Goldman Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2003 Mary Goldman Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2002 Eric Niebuhr and Sam Prekop, Mixture Contemporary Art, Houston, TX
2001 Goldman Tevis, Los Angeles, CA
2000 Peggy Phelps Gallery, Claremont, CA
1997 Kwaigetsudo and Brown Sweater, Purse Building Studios, Houston, TX
Group
2018 The Paddock II: Posted, JCCAC, Hong Kong
2017 Guest Star, Devin Borden Gallery, Houston, TX, US
2015 Fotanian Open Studios, Hong Kong
2014 Crackers, The Cat Street Gallery, Hong Kong
2013 Eternity, Damien Minton Gallery, Sydney
Low Relief, curated by Connie Anthes, Damien Minton Gallery, Sydney
2012 Marrickville Contemporary Art Prize (Highly Commended), Chrissie Cotter Gallery, Sydney
Five Bells: A Visual Ode to Sydney, Damien Minton Gallery, Sydney,
Australia
Michael Callaghan: Merchants of War (tribute), Damien Minton Gallery, Sydney
2011 Under the Willow (curated by Virginia Wilson), Flinders Street Gallery, Sydney
Crude, Index, Sydney, Australia
2007 Hammer museum at 20th Century Fox Studios, Los Angeles, CA
2006 Plans to Take Over the World, Between Two Rocks Gallery, Los Angeles
Impression/Isms Contemporary Impressions, City of Brea Gallery, Brea
Volta Show2, ULTRA BRAG, Basel, Switzerland
2005 Gallery Group Show, Mary Goldman Gallery, Los Angeles
LA, Lucas Schoorman Gallery, New York, NY
2004 100 Artists See God, curated by John Baldessari and Meg Cranston,
Cinncinati Museum of Art , Laguna Museum of Art, The Jewish Museum
(San Fransisco), ICA (London)
2003 Road Trip, Margaret Thatcher Gallery, New York, NY
Artissima 10, Internazionale Dart Contemporanea A Torino, Torino, Italy.
2002 21 Paintings from LA, Robert V. Fullerton Art Museum, San Bernadino, (catalogue)
Road Trip, Murray Guy, New York
Gallery Group Show, Goldman Tevis, Los Angeles, CA
Glamour Trip So Soon Will Slip, Sheehan Gallery, Walla Walla, WA
2001 Scary Scary, Andrew Shire, Los Angeles, CA
Saccharin, Wayward Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Texas National, The Art Center, Nacodoges, TX.
2000 Currencies. Patricia Correia Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
The Poster Show, Cabinet Gallery, London, England
1999 HOME/WORK, Factory Place Studios, Los Angeles, CA
Ply, A Collaboration of Graduate Schools, Art Center Graduate Galleries, Pasadena, CA
XCXL: exquisite corpse extra large 20th anniversary invitational,
Lawndale Art Center, Houston, TX
tiny tiny, Angels Gate Cultural Center, San Pedro, CA
1998 The Texas Show, ABC No Rio, New York, NY
1997 Self-Obsessed and Sexee is a Song by Sonic Youth, Small Projects Gallery, University of
Houston, TX
1996 Art Goes to City Hall, City Hall, Houston, TX
1995 Cross City Blowout, mobile drawing exhibit in moving van, Houston, TX