The Back Gallery Features the Work of Albin Erhart

Expressionistic with loud and vibrant colors, Albin Erhart's creations tell stories. They convey messages, reflect curiosity, share the results of lengthy investigations and exploration and depict discovery and unearthed treasures. Albin's work will be on exhibit in the Back Gallery at The Flying Pig Gallery and Greenspace through the month of July.

Erhart is a self-taught outsider artist from southern Germany. His education is in graphic design, which he has used for over twenty years working in marketing and advertising management in B2B markets. Initially he shared his work only with friends, but began to show publicly in 1995. He has exhibited in Germany and throughout the Midwest with representation at the Almont Gallery in Waukesha, WI and The Flying Pig. He resides in Hartland, WI with his wife Sibilla.

Erhart's work is often political, philosophical, religious, illustrative, fun and sometimes just plain silly. He found his artistic roots in books, copying works from Kirchner, Picasso, Moreau, Hundertwasser and by studying about the Vienna School of Fantastic Realism, Der Blaue Reiter, Expressionists, German Romanticism, Dadaism, and Cubism. Later he discovered history and religious painters – Chagall, Bosch.

Erhart creates using many different mediums including acrylics, watercolors, wood and paper. His latest creations are Pentakis-Dodekaeders, stars that are folded from 30 square pieces of paper that are put together without glue. Through his stars Erhart is exploring the capacity of the dodekaeder as a vehicle to communicate dimensionally. “I explore the symmetrical and uniform patterns, and the dynamics between the three squares that wrap around the tetraeder pyramid that touch each other at the peak and the five squares that touch each other at the bottom corner of each tetraeder pyramid. I also explore further multidimensional themes, merging themes and morphing from one theme to the other over five stars or three stars.” The stars are created using photographic images or original colored drawings.

“My work lives off of tensions between contour and content, form and filling, line and plane, composing and improvising, shaking up time and space attitudes."