Exhibition Highlights Painter Eric Telfort - Inside Art With Michael Rose

Exhibition Highlights Painter Eric Telfort - Inside Art With Michael Rose

 

The lives of children are full of imagination and play. For illustrator and artist Eric Telfort, memories of childhood are fertile ground for the creation of thought-provoking paintings. A classically trained artist with a rich knowledge of art history, Telfort is currently featured in a solo exhibition titled Child’s Play. On view through June 28 at AS220, the exhibition highlights the distinctive skills and narrative powers of one of the state’s most impactful artists.

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Telfort was raised in the Little Haiti section of Miami and came to Rhode Island to earn his undergraduate degree in Illustration at RISD. He went on to work in the game industry and completed his MFA at the New York Academy of Art, an institution known for cultivating contemporary realists. His work has been exhibited at the Cahoon Museum of American Art and he earned a prestigious $25,000 MaColl Johnson Fellowship from the Rhode Island Foundation. An engaged educator, he has served as Department Head of Illustration at RISD and helped to launch its new MFA program in Illustration.

 

 

Telfort is a technician who creates paintings that look as though they hail from historic academic tradition. Smooth surfaces and perfectly crafted figures are set off against the inventiveness and unexpectedness of the narrative points in his imagery. There is also an ease with Telfort’s brushwork in some areas that is in contrast to the controlled way in which he renders in others. The effect is quite dazzling.

 

When asked about how he creates his remarkable paintings, Telfort explains his use of personal history and technique. He says, “My concepts of my paintings all start from memories and anecdotes from my siblings and extended family. Since I work on multiple paintings concurrently, organization and proper knowledge of the alchemy of my materials are important. I begin with a rough block-in on a gessoed surface, followed by amber shellac to seal the drawing, and then apply successive oil layers, each with a specific goal in mind, as taught to me during my time at the  New York Academy of Art, and recently, the Barcelona Academy of Art.”

 

 

Telfort’s current series draws much inspiration from his own upbringing. Topics that might seem taboo, like the artist’s experience of being raised in a conservative Catholic household, are explored. Each painting in the show is accompanied by didactic text from the artist that invites viewers into a deeper understanding of what he is aiming to share.

 

Considering what he hopes viewers experience in his work, Telfort explains, “As stated in my artist statement, on the surface I want my viewers to think about their childhood activities, influences, and the iconic figures that helped shaped the lens through which they look at the world and themselves. There are layers of social, historical, and psychological discourse that reveal themselves the longer you spend time with the compositions, which was not done intentionally. Rather than use topical racial issues to scaffold my work, like many activist artist spirits do, I choose to present an objective visual experience, and allow the ideas to naturally reveal themselves.”

 

 

Looking at any of the pieces in Telfort’s solo exhibition, viewers might find something familiar. There are occasions of childhood solitude and others of inventive play. The line between reality and fiction is pushed to its limits and throughout all the artworks the artist’s familial ties are on view. Alongside his own paintings, Telfort is exhibiting a pair of black and white photographs by his cousin Greg Almonord that inspired his own creativity.

 

In addition to being a practicing artist, Telfort is a well-liked professor with a reputation for nurturing emerging artists. Of his job as a teacher and administrator, he says, “There's a commensal relationship between faculty and students at RISD. We feed off each other in ways that positively impact our studio practice. For every student that writes me a heart warming email saying how much I helped them grow as an artist, I can't help but remind them how much they've influenced me to continue experimenting, and nurturing my curiosity. My role at RISD is still evolving, and as it matures so does the seriousness of my studio practice.The studio is the connective tissue that makes me effective as administrator.”

 

 

Telfort is a gifted artist and storyteller. His solo exhibition Child’s Play invites viewers to explore his considerable technical gifts as well as his singular stylistic sensibility. Through the lens of childhood, he offers those who see his paintings the opportunity to reconsider the experiences that shaped their own lives.

 

Eric Telfort’s work is on view in AS220’s Project Space at 93 Mathewson Street through June 28. The gallery is open Thursday and Friday from 1-6 pm each day and Saturday from 12-5 pm. Follow Eric Telfort’s work on Instagram at @etelfort.