Erik Jeor in dialogue with Andrei Rublev, Video interview in Swedish (with English subtitles, 7:14 minutes), Video made by Elisabeth Blennow Calälv

For twenty years or so, Erik Jeor has lived with Andrei Rublev's icons, wrestled with them, pondered them and sometimes even refused them. But in the encounter with the icons in the soft ground of copper printmaking, something happened that suddenly made them unreservedly enjoyable. He now presents five soft ground etchings, in dialogue with Andrei Rublev's famous icons.

It all started when Erik Jeor found a book with Rublev's icons in an antique shop.
– They hit me, and they still do. I have thought about what it is, that gives the icons such an appeal, and I have concluded that it is because they have both depth and passion. They show what a love relationship looks like; from birth to death. To miss someone, to lose someone, to retain someone, to cherish something, to fall in love again.
– The language of religion offers concepts for things like guilt, death, forgiveness. Even if they have a place in science and philosophy, they are two-dimensional. In the religious experience, they are three-dimensional. I have turned to religion for that reason."

Birth of Christ, Soft ground etchings, Paper size 62x50cm, Print size 40x30cm

Christ washing the disciples' feet, Soft ground etchings, Paper size 62x50cm, Print size 40x30cm

Transfiguration of Jesus, Soft ground etchings, Paper size 62x50cm, Print size 40x30cm

Deposition to the tomb, Soft ground etchings, Paper size 62x50cm, Print size 40x30cm

Trinity, Soft ground etchings, Paper size 62x50cm, Print size 40x30cm

Erik Jeor

Having been born in 1974, Erik Jeor graduated with an MFA from the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm.

Jeor is represented in collections of Moderna Museet, Malmö Konstmuseum, Sundsvalls Museum, Sveriges Radio and has completed public art work for Karolinska Institutet.

One of Erik Jeor’s heroes and influences is Russian master icon painter, Andrei Rublev. The father/son theme played a role in bringing Erik Jeor into formal art education. A key inspiration for the decision was Rembrandt’s last painting, the Return of the Prodigal Son. Embracing art became like the son returning into the familial fold. Art re-activated Erik and re-directed him, making him “able to be critical towards things that did not work in my life.”

Erik Jeor recalls a scene from Tarkovsky’s biopic of Andrei Rublev, where the army is desperate to make a clock, and can only do so through a ten-year-old boy who had seen his father make a clock. “Being an artist is a bit like that.”(Galerie Ora-Ora)

EDUCATION

MFA, The Royal Institute of Arts, Stockholm Sweden 2006

Ecole Nationale Supérieur des Beaux-Arts de Paris France 2004

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2020

Lagom, groupshow at Galerie Ora Ora, Hong Kong, 29.10-18.11  

In dialogue with Andrei Rublev, solo exhibition of a new series of etchings presented by Ed-art at Gallery Weekend STHLM 14-15.11

2019

Double take, solo exhibition @ Nordiska galleriet 1921, Stockholm,  10.04-03.05

2018

Nature Speaks I, group exhibition @ Galerie Ora-Ora, Hong Kong,  19.10 - 14.11

Nature Speaks II, group exhibition @ Art021 Shanghai, 9.11 - 11.11

Till hjärtat gående, solo exhibition @ KB, Konstnärshuset, Stockholm 10.10-10.11

Röda singlar, premiere / release, (EP)  + performance @ Rönnells Antikvariat, Sthlm

Solo exhibition with Galerie Ora-Ora @ VOLTA NY, New York, 07.03 - 11.03

L´Apesanteur, duo exhibition with Elvire Soyez @ Galleri Benoni, Copenhagen 09.02 - 10.03

2017 Emilia Fogelklou, recent watercolours made by Erik Jeor @ Sigtunastiftelsen, Sigtuna

2016 Un air familier, a duo exhibition with Elvire Soyez @ Riche & Teatergrillen, Stockholm

Soundtrack of Vierge Moderne, premiere / release, (Album/soundtrack for documentary at YLE) + performance @Rönnells Antikvariat, Stockholm

Video, Image and Text Courtesy of the Artist.

Edited by Sue and Emily.