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In Erika Sanada’s “Cover My Eyes,” running through July 30 at Modern Eden Gallery in San Francisco, viewers find a new batch of ceramic sculptures from the Japanese artist. Sanada's “dogs” typically feature at least one physical mutation and represent ongoing anxieties in the artist's life. She explains the addition of new animals this time around: “The rats and birds present with the dogs are further extensions of myself and my fears. Birds, like my anxieties, are difficult to contain and control, and are always a part of me and my work.” The artist was featured in Hi-Fructose Vol. 31.
For San Francisco based artist Erika Sanada, animals have long represented a sort of escapism from reality. Featured here on our blog and in Hi-Fructose Vol. 31, her creepy-cute sculptural incarnations of "zombified" baby creatures are analogies to her own demons. Over the years, we've seen her sculptures evolve into more dynamic pieces of art; playful, narrative scenes colored in a spectrum of somber hues. She explores a bolder, darker palette and decoration in her upcoming solo, "Cope."
Animals take on a special meaning in San Francisco based artist Erika Sanada's work, whose sculptures of cute "zombified" puppies, rats, and baby birds represent a sort of escapism from her anxiety. In an effort to embrace and defeat her demons, so to speak, Sanada created her "Odd Series", which was featured on our blog back in August and in Hi-Fructose Vol. 31. Since that time, her sculptures have evolved into more positive displays of her characters, who often interact with eachother in playful chases and tug of wars. Sanada expands on her ongoing series with her solo exhibition, "Balancing Act", now on view at Abmeyer + Wood Fine Art in Seattle.
The enchanting yet eerie ceramic sculptures of San Francisco based artist Erika Sanada were first featured in Hi-Fructose Vol. 31. In that feature, we included works from her previous showing at Hi-Fructose Vol. 31, "Odd Things", where the artist touched upon themes of newborn innocence and death. She returns to the gallery on August 15th with an uplifting new series, "Fighting Spirit". In our recent studio visit with Sanada, she shared with us the personal inspiration behind the series where she seeks to defeat her own anxiety.
Erika Sanada's ceramic sculptures of puppies and other animals, featured in HF Vol. 31, are sweet yet a little chilling. Her surrealistic pieces give animals a dreamlike quality that draws the viewer in. Their disquieting nature is a reflection of Sanada's own fears and anxieties in her daily life, which she expresses through her artwork. In her artist statement, she calls this her "dark side". Sanada is looking to finally conquer these feelings in her new series, which she is now preparing for her next exhibition at Modern Eden Gallery. Take a look at our photos from Erika Sanada's studio after the jump.
Erika Sanada's canine sculptures are both endearing and unnerving. There's something sweet about her ceramic puppies (featured in Hi-Fructose Vol. 31) despite their zombie eyes and pale, hairless skin. The dogs play, wrestle, and cuddle, but the ambiguous details in each sculpture make it possible to interpret their gestures as either tender or malicious, or perhaps a bit of both. Sanada began creating these creatures as a way of coping with anxiety. She says they represent dark elements of her mind she's had to tame. The latest installment of her ongoing, autobiographical body of work will debut in her upcoming solo show, "Odd Things: Daydreaming," which opens November 28 at Antler Gallery in Portland and runs through December 31.