Artist Statement:
Laying out the objects on the panels usually without conscious intention often ends up offering surprising insights as to how I am feeling that day and why. The paintings also offer surprises but more reflected upon, trial-by-error ones. The heavy black outlines, placement, shapes, layers, color, texture, composition, and marks encompass a more abstract reach but are founded on personal, almost literal interpretations of personal experience and mood.
The square or rectangular shapes of the panels may be a nod to traditional windows looking out or in or to traditional art hanging on a wall. The floating in space might be in part the influence of two islands: Great Inagua in the Bahamas where I spent my early childhood and an intergenerational island in Maine where I still beach comb.
Bio:
Aileen Erickson is an artist who currently works in painting and assemblage. Natural elements present in her 3D work often inspire her paintings. Her art focuses on subjective images of nature which reflect personal mood and experience. Mostly due to developing physical sensitivities, she has moved from printmaking to mix media on paper to acrylic on canvas to oil on canvas. This necessity to start over with each move has resulted in a certain freshness of approach. Erickson attended The Skowhegan School of Painting in Maine and The Art Students League in New York. In Boston, she was an active member of the local artistic community, having been part of The Experimental Etching Studio for six years and having a studio at The Boston Center for the Arts for over fifty years. She has exhibited her work at Brandeis University’s Dreiser Gallery, Boston City Hall, Wheaton College’s Beard and Weil Art Galleries, Brickbottom Gallery, Mills Gallery, and most recently The Bromfield Gallery.
Aileen comes from a family of art lovers, especially her mother. She is married to an artist, and they live together in Cambridge, MA where they raised a daughter and sequentially two dogs.
CV:
Studio: Mad Oyster Studios in Somerville, MA.
Email: pittori@gmail.com
Art Education:
1963-4 State University of Iowa (Printmakers Workshop under Lasanky; also The Writers’ Workshop)
1967 BA Sarah Lawrence College (one third studio art)
1966 Skowhegan School of Painting
1967-69 The Arts Students League, NYC after being accepted at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY which was briefly attended
PRINTS:
1972 Boston City Hall, Main Gallery, Experimental Etching Studio
1972 The Boston Printmakers at the Rose Art Museum, Waltham, MA
1973 The Opening Exhibition of the Arts and Science Center, Nashua, NH
1975 Elexander Knevvsen and Aileen Erickson at the Boston Center for the Arts Gallery (later The Mills Gallery)
1976 Fifteen Printmakers from the Experimental Etching Studio, 6 aquatint-with-line prints, Dreitzer Gallery, Brandeis University, Waltham
INK/CHARCOAL/WATERCOLOR/GOUACHE ON PAPER, ACRYLIC STILL LIFE ON CANVAS:
1982 Solo exhibition: Aileen Erickson at the Mills Gallery
Group shows with the Boston Center for the Arts including:
1979 Main Gallery, Boston City Hall
1980 The Mood of New England, Past and Present The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston
1982 Boston Center at the Boston Five The Boston Five Cent Savings Bank
Other group shows including:
1982 Watercolors, the Medium Explored, 3 works, Van Buren/Brazelton/Cutting Gallery
1983 Sixty Boston Artists, Main Gallery, Boston City Hall
1982 Boston Within Curator David Ross (ICA), 2 works, Cyclorama Hall
1988 Solo exhibition: Watercolor, Gouache, Acrylic Still Life Paintings 1982-8 Mills Gallery
1984,1985,1986 Mills Gallery BCA Annual Group show
2003-4 Dec-Feb The Perceived Object: Directions in Contemporary Still Life 5 paintings, Beard and Weil Art Galleries,Wheaton College
2007 Studios@35 Curator James Manning, 2 works, Mills Gallery
2008 Art and Author Exhibition, 45th Reunion,16 works, Concord Academy Math and Arts Center
2011 Off the Wall Curator Susan L. Stoops, 1 painting, Danforth Art Museum
PAINTINGS ON PAPER, ACRYLIC ON LARGER CANVASES, BEACH OBJECTS ON PAPER AND ON PANELS:
2009-2010 Amalgam Curator Evan Garza, Artist Studio Building (ASB) Annual Exhibit, 2 works, Mills Gallery
2010 Objects Falling into Place/Space Solo exhibit: South End Branch of the Boston Public Library
2011 This Must be the Place curator Emily Isenberg, 5 works, ASB Annual Exhibit, Mills Gallery
2011 Into the Light curator Fay Chandler, 2 works, The Chandler Gallery (formerly Maud Morgan Gallery)
2013-14 Dec-Feb The Infinite Space of the Possible Curator Lynne Cooney, 15 works, ASB Annual Exhibit, Mills Gallery (‘This Land is a small land’ The Boston Globe, Dec. 31, 2013 ‘Small canvases and infinite space’ plus www.youtube.com/watch? V=13LyNAOHWME)
2014-15 Dec-Jan The Triggering Town, Details of Subtle Significance Curators Randi Hopkins and Zelana Davis, 4 works, ASB Annual Exhibit, Mills Gallery
2015-2016 Dec-Jan Dream Weavers Curator Debra Olin, one large acrylic on canvas, Brickbottom Gallery, sponsored by The Art Connection
2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 ASB Group Exhibits, Mills Gallery, BCA Lobby Gallery
2017 July-Sept Real/Ideal, Turning Utopia into Reality Curator David Guerra, large acrylic on canvas, ASB Annual Exhibit, Mills Gallery
Except for 1998, 2006, 2021, South End Open Studios
OIL ON LARGER CANVASES, BEACH OBJECTS ON PANELS (ASSEMBLAGES)
2016 July-Sept Placemaking Objects: BCA Artist Studios Exhibition Curator Jennifer Hall, one objects-on-panel work, ASB Annual Exhibit, Mills Gallery
2018 One Person Exhibit, curator Randi Hopkins, BCA Lobby Gallery
2022 November Two Person Exhibit (Barbieri/Erickson) paintings and assemblages, The Tavern Club, Boston
2024 Bromfield Gallery, Plus One, 36x36” acrylic/oil on canvas, guest of Bromfield Gallery member Patty Stone
2024 Piano Craft Gallery, Fire in the Basement, 3 framed black ink and watercolor paintings on paper, BCA exhibit, managed by BCA resident Rebecca Greene
2022-2025 Boston Center for the Arts Studio Residency program
2025 April 26-July 19 Changing Seasons curator Julia Szejnblum, assistant curator Casey Fisher, The Mills Gallery’s Project Room