A studio visit with Erin Armstrong
Trial By Fire opens June 11 at KÖNIG Galerie Berlin
Erin Armstrong’s solo exhibition, Trial By Fire, at KÖNIG Galerie Berlin, opens next week and runs until July 20th. I worked with Armstrong in the lead-up to the exhibition, including writing the following text and reaching out to press. If you’re interested in learning more about Armstrong’s work, send me an email at: tatum@artforecast.info
Erin Armstrong paints a familiar story. Trial By Fire at KÖNIG Galerie in Berlin tells the narrative about the encroachment of men, their rallying against women, and the many ways women learn to protect themselves. It starts with a battle cry: two men raise their instruments to declare war. From there, only women exist in Armstrong’s world.
Women hiding in the forest, alert and ready, and also vulnerable. The figures are naked and afraid, exposed to both the natural elements that surround them and to external forces that may wish them harm. Women are painted off-kilter, balancing on spheres in an attempt to stay upright. In heavily cropped portraits, they meet the viewer’s gaze directly and unwaveringly. The painted bodies appear almost sculptural, like marble drenched in hues of grey, green, blue, and violet. The women Armstrong paints are avatars, connections to women that span centuries, from myth to the present day.
Trial By Fire is both relevant to today’s political climate and also speaks to the past. Take Greek Mythology, for example. Armstrong’s figures could be the goddess Artemis of the hunt as she moves through the forest, self-possessed and watchful. Persephone also might make an appearance. The goddess of the underworld appears suspended between seasons and worlds, depicting the duality of women. The duality of strength and vulnerability is, necessarily, ever present today.
A reckoning is at play here. Armstrong shows the spectrum of experience of women under threat, where vulnerability is not a weakness, but as a reality. Fear, tension, and resilience make way for tenderness. The figures shown aren’t meant to be strong—they’re simply trying to survive.
Below are some shots I took at Armstrong’s studio before the exhibition was shipped off to Germany:
Artist Bio: Erin Armstrong is a contemporary figurative artist based in Toronto, Canada. Her work looks into the human imagination as it is expressed visually. She is particularly intrigued by how the mind can conjure and create worlds by piecing together memories, experiences, and the mind’s ability to render non-reality. She draws on the genre of portraiture as a foundation for these explorations. Still, she chooses to depict not a person or sitter, but an atmosphere or sensation expressed inside the formal qualities of human shapes.