Gary Erickson
Minneapolis, Minn.

I was introduced to the life cycle of plants while growing up around my grandparent’s greenhouse. An avid gardener, I love the cycle of annual flowers, harvesting, then doing it all again the next spring.

For twenty-three years the common thread in my work has been forms that spiral. The spiral is the most often reoccurring phenomena found in nature and the purest expression of moving energy. We encounter spirals in the most familiar way as in water moving down a drain, to the obscure microscopic DNA, to the total awe of hurricanes or galaxies. Spirals construct, reflect and unite all creation.

Wherever energy is left to move on its own, it resolves into spirals. I use this concept as my sculptural forms are animated by the energy of the spiral and a sense of containment. Coil-built, the sculpture exhibits growth through self-accumulation. Each layer of coils slightly offset to create the spiraling motion as rhythmic expression in nature, music/dance and life. I have titled work in Spanish to pay tribute to the influence of rhythms from Afro-Cuban music.

Inspired by sensual forms in nature, my sculpture evokes an essence of living things. Each piece has elements hinting to the life cycle of conception, birth, aging and death. I start the building process in the center of each form, providing an origin of energy that radiates toward a beginning in one direction and maturation in the other.

My work is represented by freestanding sculptural forms and groupings of organic forms and cast ceramic rocks installed on the wall. I am interested in the relationship between my vision of abstracted nature and the replication of known organic forms: rocks. The arrangements display the concept of rhythmic order through combinations of forms and colors. The viewer is left to reflect on the beauty of nature, as they know it and what visions nature inspires in man. The pieces become a dance of spirit and spirals.
Using the language of abstract sculptural forms, each piece is a whimsical, energetic, animated, rhythmic, colorful study of life and the influence of nature on mankind.

B.A., Hamline University, 1980
M.F.A., New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred
University, 1985

Currently Visiting Assistant Professor, Macalester College

Selected Exhibitions: "Facets of Clay", Macalester
College Gallery, St. Paul, 2003; "Ceramic Tile/Sculpture Installation", Circa Gallery, Minneapolis, 2002, 2001; "USA Clay", Smithsonian American Art Museum, Renwick Gallery, Washington, D.C., 2001; "2000 Sidney Myer Fund International Ceramics Award", Gallery 101, Melbourne, Australia, 2000

Public Art Commissions: Shoreview Community Center, Shoreview, Minn., 2003

Selected Grants: Wallace Faculty Travel Grant, Macalester College, 2002; Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Assistance Fellowship Grant, 1999; McKnight Artist Fellowship for Ceramic Artists, 1999

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