Eric Boyer

Photo by David N. Seelig

I have been involved in creating, artistically and otherwise, since my childhood. My work in wire mesh is a result of over twenty years of fascination with a material I discovered quite by accident, searching for a medium that I could best express myself with. Working with leftover scraps of material at a blacksmith shop I was employed in, I gradually came to know the incredible expressive power of a medium most people, artists included, had never even heard of. Thus began a refinement and synthesis of all my experiences designing, fixing, and tinkering with things. I also called upon years of studying the human form through life drawing and carving in wood and clay, as I learned the skills necessary to work with a material that is at once supple as clay, demanding and hard as steel, yet finite and woven, literally a fabric of wire.

These playful experiments eventually led me to my first exhibition, in 1989. If the sculptures don't exactly speak for themselves, they do not require much in the way of explanation. They share my fascination with the human form, and the human history of image-making in and around that form. Occasionally the sculptures have a story to tell: The Icon. A visual pun. An excuse for an obscure literary or musical reference. A new interpretation of greek mythology.Yet the wire mesh itself is a material with no foreseeable limits as an artistic medium. My figurative work represents one narrow avenue of expression within a vast potential territory, which can include geometrical pieces, architectural installations, furnishings, two-dimensional work, and kinetic sculpture.

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Dancer

Three Graces

SOLD

Résumé

In 1985 I started to explore in metals, being employed for five years in a metal working shop where I learned to forge, weld and fabricate decorative iron railings, furniture and other household items. Among these were the dozens of fireplace screens of various designs and sizes that I fabricated and assembled. Being fond of salvaged materials, I began to play with left over scraps of the #8 mesh that were discarded from the assembly process. Having always been attracted artistically to the human form, and for other reasons both ethereal and practical, I began to sculpt figures. At first small and rather timid, these mesh sculptures began to attract attention, resulting in my first exhibition, in 1989, of 3/4 life-size figures at Art on the Mountain in Wilmington, Vermont. Working with wire mesh continues to fascinate me after 20 years.

Selected One and Two Person Exhibitions

Deborah Hudgins Fine Art: Santa Fe, NM, 1993 - 1996
Houshangs Gallery: Santa Fe, NM, 1997 - 1999
Palm Avenue Gallery: Sarasota, FL, 1995 - 2006
River Valley Performing Arts Center: Putney, VT, 1991
Prism Gallery: Port Jefferson, NY, 1998
International House: NYC, 1992
Mill Valley Sculpture Gallery: CA, 1998
Southern Vermont Arts Center: 1995/2002
220 Gallery, Chelsea, NYC-2000
Hunter-Kirkland Contemporary,Santa Fe, NM 2002-2006
Guiford Greene Gallery, Guilford,CT- 2002
Ozone Studios, Columbus, OH,2000
Gallery North Star,Grafton,Manchester, VT 1992, 1999, 2002
Duley-Jones Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ 2003

Group Exhibitions and Galleries

Art on the Mountain; Wilmington, VT: 1989 - 1992 (Best of Show in 1991)
Stratton Arts Festival, Stratton Mountain, VT: 1990 - 1999 (Best of Show and Janeway Fellowship, 1994)
Vail Village Arts: CO
Gallery Sculptura: Cincinnati, OH, 1999
Windsors Gallery: Dania, FL, 1993 - 1999
Palm Avenue Gallery: Sarasota, FL
Gallery North Star: Grafton and Manchester, VT
Fitchburg Museum of Art, Fitchburg, Massachusetts: 1990
Artisans at the Equinox, Manchester, Vt 1990
Windham Art Gallery, Brattleboro, VT: 1991-1992
Ward-Nasse Gallery, New York City, NY 1992- 1995
Year of American Craft: West Springfield, MA, 1992
The Artist's Loft Gallery, Brattleboro, VT 1992
Philadelphia Art Show: 1994
Williamsville Inn Sculpture Garden: 1995 - 1999
Sumner & Dene: San Diego, CA, 1997
Hunter Kirkland Contemporary Santa Fe, NM
"Within These Walls",Columbus, OH, 2002-2003
Paradise East Arts Festival,Marlborough, MA 2000
Paradise City Arts Festival, Northampton,MA 2000-2001
Wood River Gallery, Ketchum, ID 2004-2005
Greene Gallery, Guilford, CT 2001-2004
Courtyard Gallery, Mystic, CT
Vickers Collection, Beaver Creek, CO

Member

Artist Blacksmith Association of North America (ABANA)
American Craft Council
Sun Valley Center For The Arts

Recent Commissions

MGM Grand Hotel, Las Vegas, NV: Installation of 13 sculptures
"Madonna and Child", Church of the Presentation, Stockton, CA

Publications

Art and Antiques: "100 most passionate collectors"
Home Magazine - February, 1991
Audio-Video Interiors Magazine - March, 1992
Anvils' Ring Quarterly - Spring, 1992
Architectural Digest - March, 1997
South China Morning Post-"Interiors" 2002
Wood River Journal,December,2002
Art-Talk Newspaper,"Wired About Sculpture",May, 2003