On August 3rd, First Amendment Gallery premieres REAL ICKY, a new solo exhibition by Bay Area artist Erik Bender. Galvanized by urban life and graffiti culture, Bender's personal iconography and style create a dynamic world of mystery. The artist conjures the strange and secret as he maneuvers expansive letterforms and expressionist shapes to compose an energetic visual dialog chronicling many facets of the human condition.
Set in a noir-esque city of heightened tension and dicey stakes, Bender's young, wide-eyed figures employ magic to duck around corners and tuck into the cuts, hiding from the spectral forces of the law. Carved plaster reliefs referred to as tablets, with surfaces treated in pigment and slathered with paint, stamp the physicality of this bold figuration, reminiscent of the concrete fixtures and surfaces Bender once used as his canvas. Bold and decisive, Bender's recent practice of embraces curiosity and personal evolution while leaving his mark but carving out a permanent space.
Erik Bender is a Bay Area-based interdisciplinary artist who received a BA from the University of California Berkeley in Art Practice in 2017 and has shown in Good Mother Gallery, pt. 2 Gallery, and the Luggage Store.
REAL ICKY opens at First Amendment Gallery on August 3rd, with an opening reception from 7 to 10 pm, and is on view through August 30th, 2019.
