Erica van Zon (born 1979) is an artist from New Zealand.

Education and career

Erica van Zon completed a

Bachelor of Fine Arts A Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) is a standard undergraduate degree for students for pursuing a professional education in the visual, fine or performing arts. It is also called Bachelor of Visual Arts (BVA) in some cases. Background The Bachelor ...

at the Auckland University of Technology in 2001. Following this, she studied at the Elam School of Fine Arts in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

, completing a Masters in Fine Arts in 2008.Bio: Erica van Zon
" Jhana Millers Gallery. Retrieved 21 September 2021. Her artworks are held in the collections of the Dowse Art Museum, the Dunedin Public Art Gallery, the

Sarjeant Gallery The Sarjeant Gallery Te Whare o Rehua Whanganui at Pukenamu, Queen's Park Whanganui is currently closed for redevelopment. The temporary premises at Sarjeant on the Quay, 38 Taupo Quay currently house the Sarjeant Collection, and all exhibitions a ...

, and Wellington City Council. In 2011 she travelled to

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

for the Wellington City Council / Asia New Zealand WARE Residency; in 2014 she was the Dunedin Public Art Gallery's Visiting Artist in Resident; and in 2016 she undertook the Tylee Cottage Residency in

Whanganui Whanganui (; ), also spelled Wanganui, is a city in the Manawatū-Whanganui region of New Zealand. The city is located on the west coast of the North Island at the mouth of the Whanganui River, New Zealand's longest navigable waterway. Whangan ...

.Uncanny Valley: Erica van Zon on slippage, scratchy wool and New Zealand's first dealer gallerist
" ''The Pantograph Punch'', 23 November 2016. Retrieved 21 September 2021. Van Zon is based in

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

and is represented by Melanie Roger Gallery in Auckland, and Jhana Millers Gallery in Wellington.

Art

Van Zon works in a wide variety of media: sculpture, tapestry, embroidery, beading, photography, stained glass, and ceramics. Her practice is influenced by architecture; lost and abandoned objects, clothes, and places; film; novels; art history; pop culture; and the flow of information on the internet. From these wide-ranging elements, van Zon creates stitched scenes, tableau, and re-imagined artworks. Her work has been described as a way to "re-evaluate and re-observe the humdrum. We are faced with an artistic '' jamais vu'', a state in which we look at the everyday and see it as a previously unnoticed object". Her installation at the Dowse Art Museum ''Coffee Perhaps'', for example, was inspired by

Helen Hitchings Helen Hitchings (17 June 1920 – 4 July 2002) was a New Zealand art dealer, best known for the short-lived but influential eponymous dealer gallery she opened in Wellington in 1949. Gallery of Helen Hitchings At age 28 Hitchings opened New Z ...

, a gallerist in 1950s New Zealand who ran the country's first modernist dealer gallery. This installation combined elements of stained glass, printed scarves, sculpted wood, painted walls, and a famous

Toss Woollaston Sir Mountford Tosswill "Toss" Woollaston (11 April 1910 – 30 August 1998) was a New Zealand artist. He is regarded as one of the most important New Zealand painters of the 20th century. Life Born in Toko, Taranaki in 1910, Woollaston attended ...

painting recreated in embroidery. As evidenced in this show, modes of presentation—shelves, plinths, wall hanging apparatuses—are part of van Zon's artwork and carefully considered in relation to the exhibition as a whole. This was also evidenced in van Zon's 2016 exhibition ''Opal Moon, Local Lime'' at the

. Works in this show took the form of empty window frames and trellises, on which other works were hung. The mixed media artwork in this show also demonstrated van Zon's linked chain of thinking and making, many works related to the next, and formed a visual map of van Zon's time spent in Whanganui as the Tylee Cottage Resident. Humour is an important part of van Zon's art practice. Her artworks often include visual puns, or funny mistakes as one medium is translated to another. For example, the

painting mentioned above, is embroidered thickly in wool. She has commented, "I've been working with the idea of cognitive dissonance or distancing – how you imagine the world that you are reading, the disappointment when the world is created by someone else. I enjoy the slippage between reality and my clumsy way of making things. I love humour in art.""Serious Play"
''Home Style''. Retrieved 21 September 2021.

Selected solo exhibitions

*2019 ''6 Days in Samoa'', Auckland Art Fair, Jhana Millers Gallery *2018 ''Peppermint Twist'', Millers O'Brien,

*2017 ''Opal Moon, Local Lime'',

, and Objectspace,

*2016 ''Coffee Perhaps'', SOLO, The Dowse Art Museum,

Lower Hutt Lower Hutt ( mi, Te Awa Kairangi ki Tai) is a city in the Wellington Region of New Zealand. Administered by the Hutt City Council, it is one of the four cities that constitute the Wellington metropolitan area. It is New Zealand's sixth most p ...

*2014 ''Dogwood Days'', Dunedin Public Art Gallery visiting artist show *2013 ''The Light on the Dock'', Hirschfeld Gallery,

City Gallery Wellington City Gallery Te Whare Toi is a public art gallery in Wellington, New Zealand. History City Gallery Te Whare Toi began its life as the Wellington City Art Gallery on 23 September 1980 in a former office block located at 65 Victoria Street, now ...

References

External links

Review of "Coffee Perhaps" (2017)
''The Big Idea''. Retrieved 21 September 2021. {{DEFAULTSORT:Van Zon, Erica 1979 births 21st-century New Zealand women artists Living people Auckland University of Technology alumni Elam Art School alumni New Zealand embroiderers Mixed-media artists