Statement + Bio
I make paintings, drawings, and cyanotypes based on intimate encounters with the natural world. A sensualist impulse drives my work, which primarily focuses on sex and bugs. Drawing from personal photos and video stills, I search for moments of tenderness and vulnerability between my subjects, which range from lovers in bed to moths in the garden. By embracing both the abject and sensual aspects of my figures, I seek to unearth themes of connectivity, embodiment, and decay.
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Born and raised in Metro Detroit, Erica Podwoiski received her BFA from the Columbus College of Art & Design in 2010 and her MFA from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2017. She has exhibited locally and internationally at the Gallery of Contemporary Art (GOCA) in Colorado Springs, at the Galerie Im Kornerpark in Berlin, and with the Denver-based pop-up art truck Hey Hue. In 2022, her work was recognized in the Tom of Finland Foundation’s annual Emerging Artist Competition. Erica has taught figure drawing and painting at CU Boulder and in a variety of nontraditional settings. She currently lives and works in Longmont, Colorado. Her turn-ons include big hands, a well-trained bonsai, Polish Cold War-era movie posters, hearts of palm, androgyny, pierogi, midcentury tchotchkes, grottoes, glam rock, moss, and the iliac crest. Her main turn-offs are truffle oil and mansplaining.