I grew up in Chicago in the 1970s and 80s. At the Museum of Science and Industry, I saw proof early on that things that are very large look just like things that are very small. The orbits of electrons and planets made the same shape. Relics in the dime stores and Alexander Calder’s mobiles in the public parks also resembled one another, geometric puzzles that played with math, balance and physics. The city felt alive with scrapyards, flea markets, furniture made from fruit crates, wire and driftwood. There was a tumultuous unfolding of chaos in the culture, one that included electronica, jazz, funk and film festivals. Even as kids, we felt the power in the alchemy of transforming found objects and forgotten spaces into something that could be named Ours. Abandoned cars, buildings, theaters, and alleys became our stages and studios.
I believe my practice began there, at the threshold between scarcity and abundance, learning to use whatever was available to make a place for myself in the world. For me, creativity is rooted in reinterpretation, risk, curiosity, desire, and the ability to notice radical shifts in meaning when a simple idea changes context. Working with what has already been discarded offers a sense of freedom and the understanding that experimentation and risk do not carry dire consequences. Making art remains a playground for intuition and transformation.
Over time, this way of working has extended beyond the studio into many kinds of shared spaces and collaborations. I’ve worked with children on mural projects in public schools, rebuilt houses in New Orleans, and taught at Scrap Exchange centers, Buddhist monasteries, bakeries, health clinics, corner stores, and vacant lots. Exchanges of knowledge in workshops across the globe, involving printmaking, paper, soap, and bookmaking, culinary traditions, and agricultural and ethnobotanical practices, have continually shaped my understanding of material, ritual, and resourcefulness.
For the last 30 years, I have lived and worked as an artist in Brooklyn, New York. The languages and history of my metropolis continually inspire me, and I routinely collect paper ephemera and detritus from its streets and neighborhoods. Incorporating these salvaged fragments and gathered textures into my work has evolved into a visual language to explore identity, society, and the visible and invisible forces that are at play in shaping a sense of self.
In my studio are stacks of shoeboxes containing scraps and shapes of paper in ink-washed violets, blues & greens, pinks & plums, Film Noir greys and onion-skin neutrals. There are sewing patterns, grammar book pages, illustrations of plants & wild animals, maps of the stars, cut-out words and titles, the edge of a lace curtain from an abandoned house, a crocheted square of cloth once in a steam trunk crossing the ocean, game boards, string, fabric, found photographs, broken zippers, and air-mail envelopes. Elements are often hand-stitched, hole-punched, and stained with natural dyes, iridescent glazes, and fluorescent pigments. The curved edges, muted colors, translucency and patinas suggest the materials have been through it all before, lived other lives. They bring their fragmentation and past relationships into new configurations, becoming part of a new living system, one that can be rearranged with scissors and glue.
Central to my work is an exploration of how ordinary objects function as historical documents, carrying evidence of conflict and scarcity, along with associations of refuge and ruin. I am drawn to the use of simple imagery: a key, water, a shoe, a wheel. These forms act as anchors, allowing the work to move between the personal and the collective, the intimate and the universal. A page from a grammar book is a symbol of safety or shelter while also a relic of war. Creating images from humble materials, such as a schoolgirl with a dress quilted from teabags or a nest constructed from old road maps, feels like building a shrine or providing a sanctuary for people, places, and objects that need mending, transforming the ordinary into something exalted.
Contact: ericaeharris (at) hotmail.com
RESIDENCIES
2023, 2018 Rancho 2 y 2 Center for Experimentation and Artistic Production, Veracruz, Mexico
2021, 2019 Blue Mountain Center, Blue Mountain Lake, NY
2018, 2017 La Ceiba Gráfica, Veracruz, Mexico
2017 Cassilhaus, Durham, NC
2015, 2010 Kriti Gallery & Banaras Cultural Foundation, Varanasi, India
2012 La Isla Foundation, León, Nicaragua
2011 Chhaap Foundation for Printmaking Trust, Baroda, India
2010, 2009 New York State Council on the Arts, Arts Bring Change Teaching Artist Grant, Staten Island, NY
2009 Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, NY
2008 Artpoint Gumno, Sloeshtica, Macedonia
2007 Instituto Sacatar, Itaparica, Bahia, Brazil
2007-2004 San Francisco State–sponsored Colima Community Art Project, Colima, El Salvador
2006, 2004 Blue Mountain Center, Blue Mountain Lake, NY
2005 Women’s Studio Workshop, Rosendale, NY – Artist’s Book Residency Grant
2004-2002 Hall Farm Center for Arts and Education, Townshend, VT
EDUCATION
1993 University of Wisconsin–Madison, Bachelor of Fine Arts, Painting and Drawing
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2015 Kriti Gallery, Thirty Dirty Paintings, Varanasi, India
2012 B. Conte Gallery, Notions, Brooklyn, NY
2010 ISE Cultural Foundation, New York, NY
2009 E.J. Belloq Gallery, Louisiana Tech University, Remains To Be Seen, Monroe, LA
2008 Object Image Gallery, What in the World, Brooklyn, NY
2007 Object Image Gallery, Flight Patterns, Brooklyn, NY
2005 Object Image Gallery, Mayday, Brooklyn, NY
2004 Object Image Gallery, Burma to Brooklyn, Brooklyn, NY
2002 Williamsburg Art and Historical Center, Brooklyn, NY
1996 Gowanus Art Center, Brooklyn, NY
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024 Cassilhaus Gallery, Airloom, Durham, NC
2023 Rancho 2 y 2 Center for Experimentation and Artistic Production, Veracruz, Mexico
2015, 2008, 2005 St. Ann’s Warehouse, Great Small Works’ Toy Theater Festival, Brooklyn, NY
2011 Chhaap Foundation for Printmaking, One Bird, Infinite Birds, Baroda, India
Brooklyn Creative League, New Messages, Brooklyn, NY
Textile Art Center, Good Work, Brooklyn, NY
2010 440 Gallery, Amoeba to Zebra, Brooklyn, NY
Bond Street Gallery, Social Security, Brooklyn, NY
2009 Lyons Weir Gallery, Art Bazaar, New York, NY
2007 Fenn Gallery of Contemporary Art, Woodbury, CT
Catherine Person Gallery, Seattle, WA
2006 Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art, Penumbra, Charleston, SC
Zimmer Children’s Museum, The Art of Time, Los Angeles, CA
Binnewater Arts Center, Smalls, Rosendale, NY
2005, 2004, 2002 Brooklyn Working Artists Coalition, Pier Exhibits, Brooklyn, NY
2004 Michael Petronko Gallery (SCOPE Art Fair), London, UK and Los Angeles, CA
White Columns Gallery, Groundswell Community Mural Project, New York, NY
2003, 2002 Object Image Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
HERE Gallery, Great Small Works Toy Theater Museum, New York, NY
2002 Brooklyn Museum, Groundswell Community Mural Project, Brooklyn, NY
Center for the Book Arts, Rare Books of the Future, New York, NY