Eric Beltz's "Trance Farm" at Morgan Lehman Gallery, New York

Posted in Comics & Manga, Curiosa & Forteana, Exhibitions / Openings / Signings, Illustration by Suzanne on April 14th, 2011 | BBC Wikipedia

Holy Fuck by Eric Beltz, graphite on bristol, 60" x 40", 2010

Welcome back. Fumetto 2011 report and Daniel Clowes interview (YES!) will follow later today.

Eric Beltz (previously featured here) is one of my favourite Facebook artist friends. Status updates like "work, other work, dog haircut" or "cleaning, preparing, waiting" would seem terribly dull uttered by anyone else but have a strange rhythmic beauty and deep prosaic humour that seem to stand in such strong contrast with Eric's dark shamanic, esoteric, parapsychological, alchemical and ritualistic oeuvre.

What I always found particularly inspiring about Eric is that he takes the artist statement a giant step further, making it a lucid and enlightening artwork statement with background information to every single piece he's made without falling into the pretentious exegesis trap like most art texts do. Here's the statement for the above piece, Holy Fuck. These personal texts are a very good and - in these decontextualising and purely associative visual times - RARE example of how a work of art can actually be appreciated more with the creator's context provided.

Holy Fuck (detail - crow, Hellebore in black mist, mouth of Hell, shadow puppets, black glowing trees) by Eric Beltz, graphite on bristol, 60" x 40", 2010 - click to enlarge

If you're Facebook friends with Eric, he lets you even further into his vision by providing minute insights into this working method. Click here for work in progress on the top panel, the lower panel and the details of Holy Fuck.

Eric Beltz is currently showing an impressive array of new works under the title Trance Farm at New York's Morgan Lehman Gallery. Details below.

In other ocularly pleasing news, my new favourite Tumblr blog is Chicks With Steve Buscemeyes. Sweet.

On show: Apr 7 - May 14, 2011

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