Biography

eric@ericeley.com

b. 1976   Dubuque, Iowa  USA

Eric Eley is an artist and educator currently residing in Portland, Oregon. Eric’s work is represented by Platform Gallery, Seattle where he has mounted three solo exhibitions. Other solo exhibitions include Art Agents Gallery in Hamburg, Germany, Gallery4Culture, and the Hedreen Gallery at the Lee Center for the Arts, both in Seattle. He has developed large scale site-specific installations for The McKinney Avenue Contemporary, Dallas and Suyama Space, Seattle and has permanent public artworks sited in Austin, TX, Seattle, WA, Fort Worth, TX, and the headquarters of Amazon.com. Eric’s work has been included in group shows throughout the US as well as internationally at the Kunsthaus Hamburg, Germany, Outdoor Sculpture Projects at Volta03 in Basel, Switzerland, and Open Space at Art Cologne in Cologne, Germany. 

Eric received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, and his Master of Fine Arts from the University of Washington in Seattle. Between degrees, Eric spent two years as an artist-in-residence at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, MT, sponsored by the Taunt Fellowship. He spent 6 years serving on the Faculty of Eastfield College in Mesquite, TX overseeing the Sculpture & Ceramics program prior to relocating to Portland with his family. 

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2012 Platform Gallery, drogue, Seattle, WA

2012 McKinney Avenue Contemporary, Coincident Disruption, Dallas, TX

2011 Suyama Space, In theater, Seattle, WA

2010 Platform Gallery, Look out, Seattle, WA

2008 Platform Gallery, prospect fields, Seattle, WA 

2007 Art Agents, hover, Hamburg, Germany

2007 gallery4culture, landing, Seattle, WA 

2006 Hedreen Gallery, Seattle University, intricate matter, Seattle, WA

2006 Kolva/Sullivan Gallery, small expanse, Spokane, WA

2001 Archie Bray Foundation, taunt fellowship exhibition, Helena, MT

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2019 King Street Projects, From Mist to Massage, Long Beach, NY

2017 Platform Gallery, Catch the Breeze, Seattle, WA

2014 Red Lodge Clay Center, AiA, Red Lodge, MT

2012 Southwestern College Art Gallery, Big & Bright, Chula Vista, CA

2011 Ro2 Gallery, Import, Dallas, TX

2011 Eastfield College, Temporary Occupants, Mesquite, TX

2010 Brazos Gallery, Modular, Richland College, Dallas, TX

2009 Art Cologne, Open Space, Cologne, Germany

2008 Archer Gallery, flat/form, Vancouver, WA

2007 Kunsthaus Hamburg, Fish and Ships, Hamburg, Germany

2007 VOLTAshow03, outdoor|sculpture projects, Basel, Switzerland

2007 SAM Gallery, Here and Now, Seattle, WA

2006 Platform Gallery, Unnatural Presence, Seattle, WA

2006 Ash Street Project Space, Sensibility, Portland, OR 

2005 SOIL, Abstraction Obstruction, Seattle, WA

2004 CMA Gallery, Summer Works, Seattle, WA

2004 Kolva/Sullivan Gallery, Past Residents, Spokane, WA

2001 SOFA exposition, Navy Pier, Chicago, IL

2001 Trish Higgins Fine Art, Six Degrees, Wichita, KS

2000 Baltimore Clayworks, Clay on the Cusp, Baltimore, MD

2000 Whitefish Gallery, Bray Show, Whitefish, MT

2000 Arapahoe Community College, Archie Bray and the Colorado Connection, Denver, CO

2000 Chester Springs Studio, Conestoga Ceramics: A Continuing Tradition, Chester Springs, PA

1999 Wayne Art Center, Craft Forms 99, Wayne, PA  

1999 Silvermine Guild Arts Center, USA Craft Today, New Canaan, CT

1999 Hill Country Arts Foundation, Origins in Clay, Ingram, TX  

1999 Vermont Clay Studio, Emerging Artists of the U.S., Waterbury Center, VT

COMMISSIONS

2019 Austin Film Studios Expansion, Austin, TX. Budget: $95,000 

2016 Rosen Park, City of Fort Worth, TX. Budget: $80,000

2015 Spirit of Austin Lane, Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, Austin, TX. Budget: $355,000

2011 Amazon.com Corporate Headquarters, Vulcan Real Estate, Seattle, WA, undisclosed budget.

2009 King County Medical Examiner’s Office, Harborview Medical Center, Seattle, WA. Budget: $25,000

BIBLIOGRAPHY

2014 Blasko, Eli. “Eric Eley.” EUTOPIA: Contemporary Art Reviews, 21 March 2014. Web.

2012 Richards, Ryder. “Terror From Above: Eric Eley’s Coincident Disruption.” FrontRow, D Magazine, 22 February 2012. 

2011 Block, Jenny. “Tiny Houses and Big Twisters at import.” Dallas Observer, 16 August 2011. Web.

2011 Grant, Adriana. “Recommendations: Eric Eley at Suyama Space.” Visual Art Source, 31 March 2011. Web.

2011 Miller, Brian. “The Fussy Eye: Gimme Shelter.” Seattle Weekly, March 2, 2011

2011 Worssam, Nancy. “Suyama Space installation shows the handmade doing battle with the high-tech.” The Seattle

 Times, February 25, 2011

2011 Watters, Nate. “Eric Eley Takes Over Suyama Space.” CityArts, 19 January 2011. Web.

2011 Graves, Jen. "Currently Hanging: Eric Eley." SLOG. The Stranger, 24 Jan 2011. Web. 25 Jan 2011.

2009 Beal, Suzanne. “A Society of Artists, The Federal Government, and a Top Secret Studio.” City Arts Magazine,

August

2008 Beal, Suzanne. “Eric Eley at Platform Gallery.” Sculpture, vol. 27, no. 10, December

2008 Pence, Elizabeth. “Eric Eley at Platform Gallery.” Artweek, vol. 39, issue 3 (April 2008)

2008 Graves, Jen. “In/Visible: What you see is what you see?” Audio Interview. thestranger.com, February 6

2008 Grant, Adriana. “Walk-through Drawing: ‘prospect fields’ at Platform Gallery.” Seattle Weekly, January 23

2008 Mammal 002: Machismo, Mammal Magazine, Issue 2

2007 May, Whitney. “Art Floats.” NY Arts, July/August

2007 Danek, Sabine. “Rumpfbeugen.” Szene, March

2007 Schiff, Hajo. “Eleys Wacherungen.” O.T., no. 10, February

2007 Brennecke, Ernst. “Kunst Wachst aus der Wand.” Harburger Nachrichten, February 16

2007 One Shot 2006, Visual Codec

2006 Hackett, Regina. “Eley’s Expansive ‘intricate matter’ Freezes Motion in the Moment.” Seattle Post

Intelligencer, October 6

2006 Staff Writer. “Best Bet.” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, September 22

2006 Staff Writer. “Hot Ticket.” Seattle Times, September 22

2006 Graves, Jen. “profanity, testing, explosion.” The Stranger, September 14

2006 Graves, Jen. “First Day of School.” The Stranger, September 7

2006 Hackett, Regina. “Contributions by Pokorny and Eley Stand Out in ‘Unnatural Presence’ at Platform Gallery.”

Seattle Post-Intelligencer, June 30

COLLECTIONS

Archie Bray Foundation, Helena, MT

City of Austin, Austin, TX

City of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, TX

City of Seattle, Seattle, WA

Eastfield College, Mesquite, TX

Harborview Medical Center, Seattle, WA

King County Art Collection, King County, WA

Progressive Corporation, Cleveland, OH

Vulcan Real Estate, Seattle, WA

Amazon.com, Seattle, WA

AWARDS

2008 Individual Projects Grant, 4culture, King County, WA

2008 CityArtist Project Grant, City of Seattle, Seattle, WA

2008 Grant for Artist Projects (GAP), Artist Trust, Seattle, WA

2004 Kottler/Noritake Scholarship, University of Washington, Seattle, WA

2001 Taunt Fellowship, Archie Bray Foundation, Helena, MT

1999 Regina Brown Fellowship, National Council on Education in the Ceramic Arts

LECTURES

2016 University of North Texas, Denton, TX

2014 Red Lodge Clay Center, Red Lodge, MT

2013 Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, TX

2011 Evergreen State College, Olympia, WA

2011 University of Washington, Seattle, WA

2009 University of Alaska, Fairbanks, AK

2009 Fairbanks Art Association, Fairbanks, AK

2007 Shift Studio, ‘Dialogues with Artists and Mathematicians: Space & Aperiodicity in Math and Art’, Seattle

2007 International Sculpture Center Conference, ‘Seattle Artists Presentation’, Seattle, WA

2001 Holter Museum of Art, Helena, MT

2001 Carroll College, Helena, MT

2001 Northwest College, Powell, WY

2000 University of Montana, Missoula, MT

2000 Northwest College, Powell, WY

RESIDENCIES

2014 Red Lodge Clay Center, Red Lodge, MT

2001 Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts, Helena, MT (2 years)

EDUCATION

University of Washington, Seattle, WA   MFA

Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY  BFA