15/1/2009
Erik Lindman
V & A, New York
House Wine, House Music. Lindman attempts to make art that is anonymous. Often starting off with shapes and imagery inherent to graphic design and interior design aesthetics, he erases or contorts these elements or media until only the possibility of their existence is left. He places this unexamined impulse for the popular within a tradition of Minimalism, inspired by a personal notion of an art-making.
V&A/Vicky Donner is pleased to present House Wine, House Music - a solo exhibition by Erik Lindman opening
January 16th, 2009.
Erik Lindman attempts to make art that is anonymous. Often starting off with shapes and imagery inherent to
graphic design and interior design aesthetics, Lindman erases or contorts these elements or media until only the
possibility of their existence is left. He places this unexamined impulse for the popular within a tradition of
Minimalism, however, unlike Minimalists, Lindman, in his own words, intends to “say as little as possible,” and
is inspired by a personal notion of art-making, rather than specific art historical concerns.
Lindman pursues a conscious lack of intention through attention to negative spaces, the physical boundaries of
his works, and the simultaneous application and removal of pigment and often-representational imagery from each
piece. Through the highly intuitive, and consistent proportions of the stretchers and canvases, the negative
space around the pieces seem equally important at working to create subtle relationships among all the objects-
non-objects. Sometimes lack of intention in Lindman’s work is more directed: One piece in the show, called
“fountain” is a small photograph of the glass of a storefront. The image is pale green - probably fluorescent
light illuminating from the store - with bits of paper and fingerprints suspended on the glass plate. The image
is an unintentional act of creation by both the artist and the storeowners. And in the painting titled
“Shadazz,” Lindman intuitively adds layers and layers of paints, and solvents, at once adding and taking away
from the piece until only a pale blue remains with translucent stains.
Titling, too, figures into Lindman’s act of juxtaposing materials and negative spaces within a consciously
painterly practice. Titles are derived from unrecognizable popular culture sources, or from art historical
sources that could be ambiguous. Ultimately, Lindman uses many different materials - oil paint, tempera, India
ink, cement, glue, language – and objects and conventions to try to “say as little as possible,” in an effort to
erase the artist, an assumed aesthetic, and history to get at a less cluttered and perhaps more immediate art
experience.
Erik Lindman was born in New York City, and lives and works in Manhattan. He graduated from Columbia University
with a BFA in 2007, and has had work in group shows in the New York, Canada and Switzerland. Most recently he
exhibited with the Swiss Institute at Armory in 2007, and participated in Art Bingo at The Atelier-Leimbiin,
Switzerland, 2008. He contributed work to Democracy in America at The Park Avenue Armory in conjunction with
Creative Time in November 2008. In August of 2008 he curated “Bring Me Back a T-Shirt...” a 3-day exhibition at
V&A, including his own work. The exhibition was reviewed in Artforum.com. This is Lindman’s first solo show.
Image: 17 days, 17 long nights... but slow, oil on canvas, 48 x 48 inches, 2008
For further information, please contact:
Vicky Donner 212.966.5754 victoria@vandanyc.com
Opening: Friday, January 16, 7 - 9PM
V&A is located on the Lower East Side in Chinatown at 98 Mott Street New York on the Second Floor.
Hours: Wednesday – Sunday 12–6pm
Subway: 6 to Canal Street; B or D to Grand Street