Erin McIntosh

Biography
Process-driven, abstract painter Erin McIntosh makes lyrical and rhythmic paintings inspired by music, nature, and movement. Her recent paintings feature biomorphic forms in colorful and dynamic compositions. Working for over 20 years as both artist and educator near Atlanta, Georgia, Erin is Associate Professor at the University of North Georgia teaching painting and 2D design & color theory classes. She holds an MFA from The University of Georgia (UGA) in Studio Art and double BFAs in Studio Art and Art Education also from UGA. Erin has taught three semesters on UGA’s Cortona Italy Study Abroad program. Her work has been published in New American Paintings, The Georgia Review, and Create Magazine. She has held residencies at the Vermont Studio Center and Atlantic Center for the Arts. Her work has been represented by Gregg Irby Gallery in Atlanta for nearly 20 years and is represented by ARTicles Gallery in St. Petersburg, FL and Weinberger Fine Art in Kansas City, MO. When Erin is not painting or teaching, she is riding her road bike around the hills of north Georgia and is learning to play the violin.

Artist Statement
My paintings are lyrical explorations of biomorphic shapes, color interactions, and dynamic compositions. Movement unifies my work as I draw from kinesthetic experiences of dance and road cycling and from rhythmic patterns found in microbiology and music.

Improvisation and play are central to my process-driven painting practice. I start a painting with a shape language and color direction established. I construct each composition layering shapes with linear accents until all parts feel active, interrelated, and balanced; I’m interested in the unexpected new configurations formed by this stacking. Existing between geometric and organic, biomorphic shapes give the work a sense of “soft geometry” and I often anthropomorphize shapes as I fluidly arrange them, resulting in a nonobjective image embedded with a figurative sensibility.

I often find myself moving back and forth between small and large-scale work, each scale informing the other with a change in perspective. The shifting of scale allows for both quicker intuitions and slower, more methodical working and a conversation to develop between different painting media on different surfaces.

Underpinning my practice is a desire to add visual moments to the world that engage and uplift. My goal is to create a visual experience in a painting, akin to the non-verbal communication of music.

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Bridgette Mayer Gallery   709 Walnut Street Philadelphia, PA 19106   tel 215 413 8893   fax 215 413 2283   bmayer@bmayerart.com   Site by exhibit-E™