Nature Interrupted
August 19 - October 23, 2022 📍Confluence Gallery
ARTIST: Erik Olson
OPENING RECEPTION: Saturday, August 27, 6:00 - 8:00pm
ARTIST TALK with ERIK OLSON: Friday, September 23, 6:00 - 7:00 pm
The reception and artist talk are free and open to the public.
ABOUT THE EXHIBIT
In Nature Interrupted, Erik Olson uses quilted plastic waste to examine the effects of consumerism, mass consumption, and unfettered capitalism on our waterways, wildlife, and wilderness areas. By layering climate change and environmental justice messages, his art emphasizes our alienation from the planet and each other, our willingness to waste, and our subsequent need for healing. By minimizing his carbon footprint in the creation of pieces and transcending the medium without denying what it is, Erik creates art that embodies Marshall McLuhan’s concept that “the medium is the message.”
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Erik Olson grew up on a hog farm in northwest Iowa where, at an early age, he realized his ability to make things out of whatever was readily available.
After earning a degree in advertising design from Iowa State University, he moved to Minneapolis and began a career as a creative in the advertising industry. In his spare time, he experimented with different mixed-media approaches to create art.
Upon leaving the advertising industry, Erik helped a friend brand a business that made functional items out of single-use plastic waste. He also helped source the used plastic and provided some initial assistance in product/process development.
Knowing that Erik had a propensity to create from whatever was available, his friend challenged him to use his creative skills to make art from the leftovers of that manufacturing process. Erik accepted the challenge, took the “waste of the waste” home, and started making. Quilted plastic waste proved itself a viable medium.
Erik does not use any new materials to make his art. All works are constructed from single-use, previously used plastic that is machine quilted and bound. The batting consists of used pallet wrap. The thread is left over from garment manufacturing or donated leftovers from friends who sew. Even the sewing machines were previously.
Since becoming a full-time artist in 2009, he has won numerous awards exhibiting and selling his art both locally and nationally. Erik minimizes his carbon footprint by continuing to work out of his 8’x12’ home studio in Minneapolis, Minnesota.