By Adam Traina~
Overdramatic, an art show by junior BFA major Erin Wright, is an experimentation of color and shape in a non-traditional gallery of paintings. An aptly named exhibit, as she has always been told she is “overdramatic,” the gallery consists of a variety of pieces, including one painting that is even as tall as eight feet.
For this project, Erin strayed off from a style she was comfortable with, that being in human figures and facial expressions, in favor of a more abstract style. As quoted from her website, “I love drawing and painting realistically, but lately I find myself painting with a more abstract style.”
From the get-go, Erin was thinking about how color and shape interact together in a space.
Focusing completely on this abstract style, Erin decided to experiment with bright neon paints as a diversion within the pieces. In her own words, she says, “I was experimenting a lot with neon paints and sprays to see how a neon color can throw off a painting that uses traditional colors.”
As for the focal piece within her works, Wright decided to use chaotic marks to comprise most of the piece. Incorporating them as a sort of ‘controlled chaos’ within the piece, she incorporates these chaotic marks into the shapes on the canvas. As Wright says, “For the shape, I was thinking about how I could use chaotic marks in my work but contain the chaos with the shapes.”
Translating her ideas of an experimentation of color and shape onto the canvas, Erin opened her show on November 4th at the Patterson building on campus.
Displaying her work of bright, chaotic paintings in the daytime gallery to the people and students attending the show, Erin Wright showed fun, yet off-kilter pieces that seem to be quintessentially Erin—not to be dramatic.
Check out Erin’s work below:
