ERIC WERKHOVEN CONTEMPORARY SCULPTURE -
Exhibiting Level One Open Gallery
Eric's art work and life are equally colourful. Eric was born in Java, Indonesia, his heritage is Dutch Indonesian. His family moved to Holland and later to Tanzania, Africa. Here he spent a happy and spirited boyhood, surrounded by the exotic beauty and dangers of wild Africa.
His teenage years were lived in Holland, there his interest in the Arts developed, attending Art College in Den Haag. The yearning for open space and adventure led Eric to Australia in 1972.
Travel has been an integral part of his life, journeying to Israel, New Zealand and New Guinea, revisiting Indonesia. Absorbing the ethos of different lifestyles has been an important factor for his artistic development.
Eric attended the Visual Arts BA Course at Newcastle University in 1988-98, and has had many exhibitions of his work in Newcastle. Eric is primarily a sculptor but also loves drawing and print making.
At present his studio and home are in East Gresford a rural village in the Hunter Valley.
ARTIST STATEMENT
"The influence of my Indonesian roots and African upbringing, including religious Javanese themes are integral to my sculptures and drawings. The works are often vivid and colourful, depicting many cavorting, mythical beasts and human creatures.
My recent sculptures are borrowed from antiquity, and stolen from the future, to create a heady mix of what the present entails.
Sculpture for me entertains these positions of thought, piety and flight in solid form.
