Hi, I’m Erik - born in Almaty, Kazakhstan, but currently I’m based in The Hague, Netherlands, where I like it very much, and where I work as an artist and educator.
In my works I concern myself with playful materiality, and the use of ephemeral elements coming from my fascination with the ever-changing nature of reality. I love using materials that possess inherently ephemeral characteristics — chalk, tape, magnets, etc, lending works an impermanent presentation. Whether a large blackboard or small marker drawing, a sense of movement is always present, exacerbated by vibrant colours and forms. Faces and bodies of strange entities often emerge from this whirlwind, their features distorted by the movements of the energy around them, and in my performances characters can change in the blink of an eye.
Life can feel at once vivid and overwhelming, yet also fragile, impermanent, and fleeting. In my work I explore this space, not just content-wise but also through physical materiality. Despite engaging with existential themes, my works aim to remain vibrant, playful, and joyful. The question I return to is: if life is inherently transient, how can this transience be made visible in a way that inspires delight rather than despair? Underlying this is an exploration of time. I resist the idea of time as linear, instead treating it as cyclical and fluid. Older works reappear inside newer ones; characters in performances slip between past and future in an instant; disparate elements coexist in the same space. This inquiry drives a multidisciplinary practice spanning drawing, performance, installation, photography, and writing. The more I explore, the more each medium bleeds into the others, reflecting the same instability and fluidity I explore conceptually.
CV