ERIC ASHCRAFT

Ashcraft’s work investigates themes of the history of illustration in painting, the philosophical connotations of the romantic, and paradox. Often his work negotiates boundaries between illusions of purity, historically identified “beauty”, and the technologically mundane. Ashcraft attempts to pose questions in relevance to his personal history, which emanates from the confused landscape of Montana where often the detritus of urban culture and sprawl exist simultaneously with sublimely vast ideals of nature. His work is multifaceted, often dealing with subjects and material that traverse the territory between the highly autobiographical, art historical, and the fantastic to find voice and concern within contemporary art. His treatment of materials varies in great degree from the painterly to the sculptural, often fusing aspects of both into singular works. Objects and images of commonality become vehicles for the fantastical and conduits for expressing a range of personal concerns varying from the cerebral to the visceral.