Erika Toliusis
For me, the ocean is not simply a subject—it is a presence.
Born in Uruguay in 1969, Erika Toliusis was exploring the complex shapes and infinite, everchanging shades and rhythms of nature from a young age.
The energy that flows through her paintings, is that of the relationship with our fragile surroundings. Her paintings are not so much a depiction of a particular landscape, but the close encounter with the essence within it.
In her work, every application is deliberate and precise. As she slashes and sculpts her way across the surface of the canvas using only a palette knife, the pictures created are stunning examples of hyperrealism. She retains, however, the spirit of an impressionist; Manipulating color and tone to develop a range of atmospheric effects on the landscape.
Crashing in endless succession, ocean waves are a zen motif analogous to thoughts appearing and disappearing in the mind, or the rise and fall of the breath. This focus delves into a form of meditative abstraction – the same section of ocean forever producing an infinite number of images. In this sense, Toliusis consecrates a moment of time with each work, finding aesthetic significance in the arbitrary patterns invented by the peaks and rolls of the water.