ERIN RACHEL HUDAK MY NATURE / YOUR NATURE JULY 1 – 29 OCHI GALLERY 119 LEWIS STREET
OCHI gallery is pleased to present a second solo show with Erin Rachel Hudak. My Nature / Your Nature, opens July 6th at 119 Lewis Street. For this exhibition, Hudak produced works that explore the ways we define the distinction between humans and Mother Nature. For example, a small series of pieces on paper juxtaposes colonial settlers and historical figures with woodland animals, or animals and domestic settings. These works help a viewer consider the manmade separation of “my land” versus “your land.” The log pile becomes a less obvious way to consider this disunion. As Hudak writes, “the log pile represents comfort, beginnings, the possibilityof warmth and fuel, but also the destruction of man’s hand in nature.” A stack of logs can symbolize frontiers, hard labor and potential. The log pile allowed humans to move beyond mere survival, saving and preparing for winters to come. From there the log pile comes to embody surplus; demonstrating human’s potential to take and use more than needed. Thus stacks of Hudak’s paintings depicting stacks of logs begin to emphasize the more modern connotations of firewood. One cannot help but picture the widespread image of a stripped forest, and rows and rows of tree stumps. Hudak alludes to the idea that the log pile is also transient and precious. The tree that takes years to grow in nature needs only moments to burn as a log. Despite these connotations, ultimately Hudak's paintings do not feel political or ominous. In fact, they also seem to acknowledge man’s potential to live in harmony with nature. Hudak’s logs are neatly stacked and set on grids, as if she sought to restore balance and also give attention to our capacity for ingenuity. They are bright, colorful and more celebratory than admonishing. In Hudak’s hands the concept of our nature/your nature emerges as a possibility full of hope where humans and Mother Nature enjoy a mutual respect and collaborative, fruitful future.
Eye to Eye 02 2012 mixed media on paper 15 x 11 inches
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Eye to Eye 4 2012 mixed media on paper 15 x 11 inches
Eye to Eye 11 2012 mixed media on paper 15 x 11 inches
a bear is a bear 2013 mixed media on paper 15 x 22 inches
an owl is an owl 2013 mixed media on paper 15 x 22 inches
We Will Build a New Tomorrow 2013 acrylic on canvases 98 x 146 inches
This is Who We Are 2013 acrylic on canvases 60 x 109 inches
Rainbow Log Pile 2013 acrylic on canvases 122 x 24 (x2) inches
I,I 2013 acrylic on canvases 72 x 24 (x2) inches
Neon Fire 2012 acrylic on canvas 60 x 60 inches
these r some good times 2012 acrylic on canvas 60 x 60 inches
Shadow 2013 acrylic on canvas 16 x 24 inches
Rainbow Rocks 2013 acrylic on canvas 16 x 24 inches
Woodpile I 2013 acrylic on canvas 72 x 54 inches
Woodpile III 2013 acrylic on canvas 72 x 54 inches
Together Forever, You and I 2013 mixed media on paper 54 x 72 inches
Eye to Eye: Byrd + American Moose 2012 mixed media on paper 15 x 11 inches
Eye to Eye: Rachel Carson + Bighorn Ram 2012 mixed media on paper 15 x 11 inches
Eye to Eye: -James Fenimore Cooper + Mule Deer 2012 mixed media on paper 15 x 11 inches
Eye to Eye: Lincoln + Tule Elk 2012 mixed media on paper 15 x 11 inches
Eye to Eye: Washington + Prairie Chicken 2012 mixed media on paper 15 x 11 inches
meet me here, mountains 2013 mixed media on paper 15 x 22 inche
take me to forever 2013 mixed media on paper 15 x 11 inches
Born in Stow, Ohio in 1978, Erin Rachel Hudak creates collages, paintings and installations that are "as much poetic as they are political and playful as they are perceptive." writes Pauli Ochi of Ochi Gallery in Ketchum, Idaho.
Working with an assortment of materials, Hudak’s work discusses ideas of freedom, power, and transformation. She creates visual narratives that are fueled by the recycled material of our cultural media. In each drawing, painting or sculpture she weaves a new dimensionality into what may seem familiar, creating allegories that speak to both the individual and collective story.
Hudak has been awarded with grants for her public temporary sculptures: What We See, 2012 installed on existing scaffolding at Water and Main street in DUMBO. Love You Forever, installed under the Manhattan bridge on the Brooklyn Bridge beach in 2011, and Everything Is Fine, installed in the historic Tobacco Warehouse, 2010. All were proposed and created especially for the DUMBO Arts Festival. She also installed a site-specific soft sculpture Love You Forever in Sun Valley Idaho in February 2012, simultaneously opneing with her solo show Promiseland at Ochi Gallery in Ketchum Idaho.
She attended Allegheny College to study art and literature and received her B.F.A from the Savannah College of Art and Design. Hudak has exhibited her work nationally and internationally. Her artwork has been featured in Vogue Girl Korea, and written up in the VillageVoice, The Brooklyn Eagle, NY Daily News, and Daily Serving.
I, me, you‌ 2013 mixed media on paper 15 x 11 inches