Eriksson’s painting begins nowhere and ends nowhere, but erosion can take place all over the surface. In some of his works, a flow of brushwork suddenly stops; in others the underlying colour returns like a vein further into the picture, only to be painted over and reappear. In nature, material that percolates down through water and settles on the bed or floor is called sediment. Eriksson’s paintings nearly all have a hidden surface, a layer that is as significant as the immediately visible one. Eriksson is always taking new roads in his practice, and many times they are far more intimate and personal than they at first appear.
Eriksson’s works always contain both sensualism and conceptualism. These are two different kinds of observation, not entirely unlike spying on wet pebbles. Eriksson paints, photographs, weaves and sculpts parts of his surroundings and memories of a special light or the colour of a tiny section of a painting by another artist. It is the space between and the nearly invisible that creates a narrative. Throughout his career, Eriksson has broken away from expectations. He often mentions how a painting initially feels wrong but how there’s still a point to its obvious failure. Partly because the failure can trigger new ideas, but also because of the capacity of failure to be liberating.
Excerpt from “Random Memories” | Sara Walker (Manager, Swedish Association for Art)
