JUNE 2023
CENTER GALLERY
New Normal | Erica Entrop
Erica Entrop was born in Roswell, New Mexico and graduated Cum Laude from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque with her BFA. After completing her studies, she began traveling across the United States exhibiting in different locations including Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. She has had an extensive artistic career having participated in exhibitions across the country and the world. Her works have recently been included in the Premier edition of Blue Bee Magazine. In the past year she has participated in the 13th Havana Biannual and the 25th Romerias Festival showcasing her newest film works in collaboration with her partner, Cuban artist, Darwin Estacio Martinez.
New Normal
My work began capturing commuters on the trains and buses of Los Angeles. The genre that seemed to capture the historical narrate of the American experience is that of realism.
A year after I created the I, Voyeur series I moved to Havana, Cuba. As my time outside of the country extended, I began to grow nostalgic about the United States. Looking to Edward Hopper, Norman Rockwell and George Tooker for the attitude and environment that felt most true to my memories of living and working in Los Angeles.
This year I became a mother. During my pregnancy I was drawn to the subject of children and the modern experience. The conversation between the nostalgic view of a Rockwell but for a new generation. How are technology and societal norms have altered forever the experience of the individual. Our children will live in a world so removed from what we lived. For me, even more so given that my daughter is part Cuban, what she will go through is completely removed from the story of both of her parents. Capturing that modern storyline was my motivation in revisiting Rockwell’s pieces and branching out from what he captured in his Saturday Evening post pieces.
Another aspect that has impacted the genre of realism that has had a true revolution is the presence of photography in our everyday lives. How photography impacted the masters of the genre in America is for me an area of interest in that the cellphone has altered not only in the same manner that photography flattens the image, but also in how we have been modified by this technology that is ever present at our finger tips.
This all creates for me an interest in the artist as lens and how I can project that into what may be the modern equivalent to the nostalgia that pervades the historical realism of the genre. The ability to experience realism as a true reflection of reality is a collaboration between the artist and the audience. The perspective must be shared in order for the realism to be truly seen as truth.
