ERIC OLIVER
I am a visual artist and film maker living and working in Los Angeles. A chronic observer, growing up in New York City fostered much of my fascination with the urban setting and its components. Shortly after receiving a BFA in phography fro Stanford University, I began working in motion picture and television production in Los Angeles where I’ve lived and worked both as an artist and as an assistant director ever since. I currently work with the full range of photographic processes, both digital & chemical, as well as with paint and pastel, often alternating between media--each influences, informs, and provides some relief from the other. The ever-changing colors, geographies, shapes, and shadows encountered during daily life generally serve as the impetus for my work. Most of the work I do is borne of a life-long and perpetual interest in dealing with the concepts of form from function & form as functions. The techniques used are an uncommon blend of traditional and non-traditional resulting in work that at once eels familiar, yet elegantly stretches the bounds of convention. “Through a Scanner’s Lens” has been an on-going series since the late 1990s when I first became fascinated by the potential of substituting a flatbed scanner for a large-format camera. The ever-increasing resolution capabilities seemed to provide endless possibilities, while the fixed depth of field and other physical & technical limitations made the challenges equally infinite. Among the images represented here are images from the 3rd distinct installment (“Branches & Leaves”) and the most recent 4th installment, “baked,” wherein cooking oil is baked onto metal sheets creating impressions which are then scanned, digitally re-mastered, and output as large format prints in limited editions. Most are available in multiple sizes.