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A visual retrospective of the turbulent year that was 2020 through the eyes of the New York-based multi-disciplinary artist Erik Foss.
TWENTY TWENTY A Year in Pictures is a snapshot of Foss’s psyche, and also of one of the most turbulent years in recent American history. A lot of the events and changes of the past year directly influenced Erik’s work, depicted in this remarkable and expressive collection of imagery, bound together in a hardcover time capsule. 2020 was a horror show, but in many ways, that very horror has been the muse for Erik’s most artistically successful year.
In a year that struck fear and insomnia in the hearts and minds of millions, we, as a culture, have undergone grave interruptions in our progression towards diversity, and global health.The onset of COVID-19, in combination with the political turmoil that ensued, we have been forced to re-examine our values, practices, and authority. In the early months of this pandemic, many Americans and global citizens faced an uprooting of lifestyle, unemployment, loss of family, experienced fear and anxiety, as well as witnessed the demonstration of violent and non-violent protests as a result of the BLM movement.
If you’ve grazed the streets of downtown NYC at any point in the past decade, you have likely been confronted with the guttural, and expressive style of Erik Foss. After moving to New York in 1996, Erik quickly established himself as a figurative kingpin within arts and downtown culture. Having been privy to a vastness of experience within the realms of music, art, and gallery production has ultimately added to the depth, honesty, and complexity of his work.
If nothing else, Erik is a prolific artist. In the first four months of 2020, he created:
- Several Portal paintings
- A slew of street photography
- Google paintings
- Toon drawings
- Abstract trompe l’oeil works made with oil and acrylics
- A large street mural
- His first bronze sculptures
About the author
Erik Foss is an artist living and working in New York City. He is embarking on his second monograph in which he shares his photography and personal works produced during the COVID lockdown. His practice spans from painting, drawings, collage, 35mm film photography and sculpture - ultimately identifying as a multidisciplinary artist.He has had countless exhibitions, solo and group, including Paul Loya Gallery (LA), CBGB (NYC), My Pet Ram (NYC), Anonymous Gallery (NYC), New Image Art (LA), V1(Denmark), Gallery Steinsland Berliner, Stockholm, Mallick Wiliams (NYC), Moosey (London), The American Academy of Arts and Letters (NYC), Kaikai Kiki Gallery (Tokyo), Cellar Contemporary (Trento) and Plan X Gallery (Milan). His first museum acquisition was facilitated via the American Academy of Arts and Letters and then placed in the permanent painting collection of the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art in 2012. Foss was invited to participate in the annual Watermill Foundation benefit auction in 2011 and 2019.
