A thirst that from the soul doth rise
Erik Jeor (b.1974) offers an intimate series of watercolor of the Madonna and child, presented in various postures and atmospheres. First and last is freedom, in an almost psychedelic manner. Through a contemporaneous, sometimes sketchy approach, echoes of Byzantine and Renaissance icons approaches. Jeor makes the traffic lights alongside the Madonna feel completely natural. And in an icon-like sense the meeting face to face with the figures pictured, creates an inverted glance, where the images behold the spectator. The aquarelle is here used to accentuate opposites; the water is sometimes playfully reduced, the pigments denser, with a wink towards oil painting. Fingers, a strand of hair, a glance is detached out of floating fields of colour, where the rainbow dips down. Likewise, emotions oscillate between closeness and trust, wonder and even – maybe – dread.
Short version of the exhibition text by poet and writer Marie Tonkin
