Eric Hesse’s work exists in the space between presence and absence. Billboards are a motif that have appeared in his work previously but in this series Hesse dives deeply into this iconic form. But notably, Hesse has removed all but the slightest traces of recognizable content from the billboards. In Adjusted Expectations, the content of the billboard seems to flow upwards as if melting in reverse – the contents disintegrating and floating away. In Lost at Sky the contents have lifted off the billboard completely leaving blankness with just a faint hint of color. In Up All Night, the billboard itself is a transparent veil through which we can see the starry lights of the city beyond. With the ubiquitous and highly recognizable shape as the the centerpiece of each painting, Hesse is asking us to consider what these forms represent.
Ancient Celts used the term ‘thin spaces’ to describes locations where the veil between this world and another is less solid, making the unseen and mystical seem more proximate and real. While Hesse is not suggesting that there is something mystical about billboards, he is suggesting that removing the trappings of mass media and the highly monetized commercial culture we live in might give us access to a sense of peace that can feel lacking. Perhaps billboards are obscuring the ‘thin space’.
The surface qualities Hesse is able to achieve in encaustic are exquisite and yet what is so striking in Hesse’s work is the level of detail. True encaustic is simply wax and pigment heated and manipulated to create compositions, and to control this chaotic medium to be a master of technique. The colors are jewel-like, the textures range from mottled earthiness to luminous liquid motion, and the finish is a smooth yet velvety incandescence.
By separating the content we are accustomed to seeing on billboards and representing them as the form only, Hesse asks us to consider what happens when that sort of content is removed from our lives. What are we left with? Are we free to see the world in a clearer way?
Eric Hesse studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Temple University (Philadelphia), and received his BA from St. Olaf College in 1994. He was a 2020 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Individual Artist Grant recipient, a Sotheby’s/Artlink International Young Art Finalist (2003), the recipient of the National Foundation for the Advancement of Art Fellowship in Visual Arts (2000, Miami, FL, three-year Residency/Grant), the recipient of the 1999 Minnesota State Fair Merit Award in painting, and was the 1997 Adzak Museum Artist-in-Residence (Paris, France). Hesse has exhibited throughout the United States and in France. He currently lives and works in France.
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