Patricia Erbelding (born in Paris in 1958) is a French artist who works in a variety of media producing abstract art.
Biography
Her first solo exhibition was held at the Galerie du Haut Pavé in Paris in 1993, curated by Jean Pierre Brice Olivier. Her work has been exhibited around the world and she is held in many collections both public and private. Her multidisciplinary artistic work spans painting, collage, sculpture, photography and artists’ books.
She grew up in France and most of her work is still produced in Paris where she has her studio.
After literary studies, she worked in a number of professions before starting painting full-time in 1988. She is a figure of the new scene in Abstract Art and is known for the unique technique in painting as well as for her Artist's books. Her work has been exhibited at the Industry Museum (now renamed "Bois du Cazier") of Charleroi in Belgium; the Nagoya Museum; the Toyama Museum; the Osaka Municipal Museum of Art and the Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art in Japan; the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan; the Musée des Avelines, Saint Cloud, France; the Swedish American Museum in Chicago; the Museum of Modern Art, Maracaibo, Venezuela; the Sofia Imber Contemporary Art Museum, Caracas, Venezuela; the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Sejong Center in Seoul, Korea; the Collage Museum, Mexico; the Musée Barrois in Bar-Le-Duc, France; the Argonne Museum in Varennes, France; the O Art Museum, in Tokyo, Japan; the Art and Historical Museum of Montbeliard, France; the Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art, Tarpon Springs, Florida; the Austin Museum of Art, Austin, Texas. Her work was exhibited at the FSU Museum of Fine Arts, Tallahassee, Florida in 2011 and 2012.
In her new works Patricia Erbelding continues to place keen attention on the concepts of transformation and metamorphosis, their application to organic and inorganic materials, and the meaning behind and produced by the process of inscribing such materials herself. Metaphors of time passing and evolution are also at play in her photographic work. Erbelding is currently represented by Jacques Levy Gallery, Paris; Galerie Insula, Paris and Port-Joinville in Île d'Yeu; Art Forum Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium; Dhalgren Gallery, Paris; Envie D'Art, London; Le Cabinet Amateur Gallery, Paris and Eva Doublet Gallery, St Georges du Bois.
Background
Erbelding was raised in the suburbs of Paris and studied literature at the University of Paris III: Sorbonne Nouvelle. Through her family she nevertheless inherited an artistic tradition – her father sculpted and her uncle painted. In 1983 she started working in an engraving studio on printmaking. While she perfected the techniques of intaglio and etching she also started working in painting and clay. Her early works included painted photography and collages and at the same early period she also produced her first Artist's books. After a few years, Erbelding refined what have been a trademark technique involving Iron oxidations and beeswax.
Techniques and processes
Erbelding apply an oxidation process which acts almost as an etching of the paper-coated canvas – the characteristic lines that forms are practically burnt into the media through the oxidation process. There is a clear link with her earlier works in etching. A slow and rigorous production process is a distinguishing feature. For her works, she uses acrylic and oil paint, paper, beeswax and iron oxide.
Photography appeared in her work in 1995 and was also important in her creation of artists books. Her artist's books are realized as collaborations with writers and poets such as Joël Bastard, Michel Bohbot, Michel Butor, Serge Gavronsky, Hubert Lucot, Tita Reut and more.
She has also produced cover art and illustrations for books, notably for Christina Mengert at Burning Deck Press.
Career
Early years
Her first solo exhibition at the Haut Pave Gallery which was well received was followed by a number of other gallery shows in Paris and other cities. Works from this period was often noted for its likeness to epidermis with the oxidation traces as scar tissue. Erbelding was elected to be Artist in Residence in 1995 at the Ponts De Sambre Art Center in Charleroi in Belgium.