Rising Stars: Meet Erin Wright

Today we’d like to introduce you to Erin Wright.

Hi Erin, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I was always interested in art but didn’t consider it as a career until I started looking at colleges. I attended The School of The Art Institute of Chicago for undergrad. It’s a great school but the open programming, which allows you to take classes across most programs and fields, left me feeling unfocused and unprepared to be a full-time artist at 22. I decided to get my Master’s of Architecture at UCLA with the idea that I would practice Architecture. Architecture school taught me how to work rigorously, iteratively and through a logical system. I can’t speak to the importance of that education in how I work as a painter now.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It has been a relatively smooth road, but I have learned to sit in the uncomfortable process. It’s a place for the work to grow and direct itself. Creating work can be a very personal experience, and it took me a long time to figure out that distance is good.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I make paintings that are colored by the classic still-life genre and appear digitally produced. The conceptual framework with which I work through is of indifference. The work is a response to our current expressionistic condition. The work removes the author as much as possible through the absence of brush strokes or mark-making, non-hierarchical object placement and through isometric positioning – no perspective.

It can be defamiliarizing to see the work in person. I think that’s a good thing.

How do you think about luck?
I don’t really think about good or bad luck, not as it pertains to my painting practice. Having a studio practice is like being in a relationship – it takes commitment and work every day. There’s no phoning it in.

I often reference Allen Iverson’s interview about practice. Iverson was questioned about why he wasn’t going to practice and his response to the media was “why are we talking about practice?”. As an artist, that’s the only guaranteed thing each day. I have to commit to going to the studio and working every day. Luck has nothing to do with that.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.erinkwright.com/
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/erin.k.wright/

Image Credits
Ian Byers-Gamber, Keegan Kruse