Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art Presents OLD ERIK CAME WONDERING OR THROW STEEL OVER THEIR HEADS This Summer

Erik Ullanderson has no filter. His work mirrors the consumption of visual cultural in contemporary life and reflects endless scrolls of Instagram feeds, Tumblr blogs and Google search returns mixed with personal artifacts and memories. While each image holds its own hypnotic sway, they come into focus upon viewing them as a body of work, a constellation of contradictions and associations, which create a unique visual language. Underlying the over-stimulus of this visual barrage is a self-deprecating Midwestern work ethic. This work is the product of treating the studio practice as a chore, a necessary and endless task that must be repeated and refined. The resulting work is direct, oozing honesty, rawness, humor and a passion for the creative process.

The work in Old Erik Came Wondering or Throw Steel Over Their Heads draws heavily on Norse imagery, sourced from pop culture, fantasy literature, mall caricature booths, gamer manuals and the history of modern painting. The Viking themes reference Erik's family ancestry, the heritage of his home in Minnesota and his deep interest in fantasy culture. Most of the images are self-portraits, obscured with drips, thick splashes of color and patterns reminiscent of 1980's mall kiosks mixed with Jasper Johns. Ullanderson personalizes these images into playful and surreal surfaces whose references are immediately recognizable. While loaded with art historical references and firmly set within the language of contemporary art, Ullanderson strategically operates at the edges, both embracing and rejecting the traditional art world.

Erik Ullanderson was born in 1971 in Minnesota and attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has lived and worked in the U.S. and the Netherlands and now maintains a studio in St. Paul, Minnesota. His extensive travels and time in corporate life have greatly influenced his art practice, which includes traditional studio output, performance, video, and "social bullshit." He has exhibited nationally and internationally and continues to produce as much as he can before he becomes incapable of producing any more. Dying scares the s**t out of him.

Old Erik Came Wondering or Throw Steel Over Their Heads

Opens today, May 1 from 6 to 11pm and runs through July 23, 2015. Special thanks to the Efroymson Family Fund for making this exhibition possible. Additional thanks to Scott Stulen, Curator of Audience Experiences and Performance at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, for his work on this exhibition.

The iMOCA at the Murphy Art Center, 1043 Virginia Avenue in Fountain Square, is open Thursday-Saturday, Noon-7 p.m.