The Slutty Eye: Tone Poem

Courtesy of James Harris Gallery

Details

James Harris Gallery, 312 Second Ave. S., 903-6220, jamesharrisgallery.com. Tues.–Sat. 11 a.m.–5 p.m. Ends Oct. 3.

-- Read more of David Stoesz's The Slutty Eye.

 

Related Content

• Eric Elliott
  September 16, 2009
• Tacoma Art Museum Announces Artist Line-Up for Ninth Northwest Biennial
  September 29, 2008

More About

• Eric Elliott
• Francois Bonvin
• Neddy Artist Fellowship
• Visual Arts
• Arts, Entertainment, and Media

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Events Newsletter: What's happening in town? From underground club nights to the biggest outdoor festivals, our top picks for the week's best events will always keep you in on the action.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

"You want to paint a hand? Well, if you realize that it is a hand, you're fucked." That's how 19th-century French painter François Bonvin described the willfully naïve approach to representation practiced by some of his contemporaries. It's a mode that lives on in Eric Elliott's weirdly neutral and nearly monochromatic new paintings, in which a human face is just another visual phenomenon, of no greater importance than a wall or a chair. It's not quite right to say that his subjects (mostly stuff that happens to be in his studio) fade into the background; it's almost as if his paintings are all background. But though his palette is radically restricted and his contours are fuzzy, Elliott—a 2007 UW MFA grad and winner of the 2009 Neddy Artist Fellowship in painting—paints with logic and clarity, creating an entire world with small gestures. A change in tone from one gray to a slightly lighter gray is enough to indicate the volume of a sofa cushion, the corner of a sink, or the mysteriously receding space beyond the artist's studio windows—all seen as if for the first time. (Pictured: In the Studio, 2009.)