Gallery Wendi Norris is pleased to announce the exhibition, Raveling Relic featuring thirteen new paintings by Eric Siemens in his first solo show with the gallery. Formerly represented by Gallery Wendi Norris as part of the collaborative artist duo Kate Eric, Siemens returns after a five-year hiatus to present this innovative body of work, including a large-scale twelve-foot wide canvas. Raveling Relic represents a long journey of return to painting, exploring how one navigates through uncertain terrain. The exhibition opens September 6 and remains on view through September 29th, 2018.

Raveling Relic is an untangling of revered images and ideas stowed in the artist’s mind. Currently residing in Camogli, a small fishing village on the coast of Italy, Siemens pulls from a pre-existing nautical language to aid his conceptual navigation. His lexicon originates from old world cartographic charts, specifically Portolan Charts or Ex-voto paintings, which operate as historical anchors.

The paintings feature beautiful, elusive landscapes with abstract backgrounds that leave the viewer disoriented, yet awestruck. Scenes range from apparitional figures that flit against the thick, impasto foreground to sharp landmasses that dissipate and reemerge at different angles. The work harkens back to fifteenth century shipwreck paintings but uses surreal color palettes and expressive washes of acrylic paint.

Siemens’s mental excavation simultaneously venerates and questions the veracity of these artistic paradigms.

Eric Siemens is represented by Gallery Wendi Norris in the launch of his solo artistic career. As a self-taught artist, Siemens’s work makes reference to the psychological, exemplified by his kinetic painterly technique, which fits into the Gallery’s compelling contemporary and modern program. Formerly with Kate Eric, Siemens has been reviewed and featured in ARTnews, Art in America, San Francisco Chronicle and other publications. Kate Eric exhibited in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, the United States, culminating in a solo exhibition at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum. Their artwork is also included in numerous public and private collections including the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.