Eric Yevak is a Southern born multi-media artist who currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2007 and a Masters of Fine Arts from The Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 2016. Yevak's paintings, films, and sound performances have been exhibited in galleries, museums and institutions across North America

Eric Yevak’s work explores violent conflict, both physical and metaphorical, as creative force. Struggle, in all its iterations, has been a constant in his life and as such, the foundation of his creative production. He conceptually and visually investigates the beauty inherent in the heightened balance that exists at the apex of a conflict. His interest lies neither in the beginning nor the aftermath, but in the pinnacle moment when, however briefly, all forces are equal.

Yevak’s work evokes meditative qualities that war between logical systematic progression and rebellion. The work is a belief in struggle as a form of enlightenment. He cultivates a sense of surface, texture and tone. His pieces act as visual solutions to his own curiosities and meditations on the concept of purity in conflict.

Process

Rather than portraying scenes of conflict, Yevak’s paintings are documents of the actual dichotomy between synthetic and organic processes, as well as the tension between control and an unknown outcome. All of his compositions start digitally, be it his physical painting or his digital projections. He has specific elements he creates completely in the computer, others that are purely physical like ink strokes and pencil lines. While even more he captures from self-created video work. He then renders the images into digital elements, randomly and rapidly aligning and realigning these elements over and over again. He relinquishes control to the programs within which he works, until he achieves a composition that speaks of balance and chaos. He then mounts these images to wood panels. He paints, draws, cuts and sands into them layering action upon action. He uses poured layers of industrial resin to hide and accents areas, the resin also acts as a physical binder allowing him to etch and inlay layers of refined pattern work. He then projects moving images on to the paintings. Video, which he has staged and manipulated. He is trying to create, or rather find that taut balance where the forces don’t meld but pull at each other perfectly.