Eric Lotzer

Eric Lotzer

Eric Lotzer

Eric Lotzer (b. 1987) explores the uncomfortable yet attractive aspects of our primal sexual behavior by merging personal experience with mythical and religious references. The intimate graphite drawings portray an erotic metamorphosis within a queer forest fantasy where animalistic beings thrive, naked and unafraid.

Puppy

2020 Graphite on paper 27.94 x 35.56 cm / 11 x 14 in

‘I’m a romantic myself. Lately, I have been trying to create a fantasy to mentally escape what’s going on in the world right now.’—Eric Lotzer

Saint Sebastian

2020 Graphite on paper 27.94 x 35.56 cm / 11 x 14 in

Sunrise

2020 Graphite on paper 27.94 x 35.56 cm / 11 x 14 in

Eric Lotzer in conversation with Joachim Pissarro

Joachim Pissarro: You’re the only person I know out of the entire thesis groups who is referring so far back to 16th century woodcuts.

Eric Lotzer: I like to play with times of the day, different conditions, like rain, lightning, the full moon, things that are just happening in nature all around me. I’m interested in decoding the masochistic tendencies of the queer community and celebrating queer sexuality. In terms of how the viewer interacts with the drawings, these are smaller scale. So they’re really intimate. They resemble fable illustrations, storybook prints. But again, they’re more X rated, more graphic, more sexual.

Joachim Pissarro: Absolutely. Are you aware of the fact that many of the tropes, morphing between nature, humanity, etc. is very much one of the central tropes to the German romantics?

Eric Lotzer: Yes, I’m a romantic myself. Lately, I have been trying to create a fantasy to mentally escape what’s going on in the world right now. Before the pandemic, my figures were very of this world, they could be found in locker rooms, clubs, seedy underground nightlife havens. But now everything is changing, everything is morphing. My new drawings explore these erotic metamorphoses. So it's about escaping. It's about capturing the flora and fauna surrounding me, capturing the transmutation of the body inspired by the etchings and engravings and woodcuts that I saw when I first fell in love with art.

Hunter MFA

The annual Spring 2020 Thesis Exhibition for graduates of the Hunter College MFA Studio Art program represents works by 19 artist graduates of this nationally noted program. Originally planned as a series of physical presentations at Hunter’s 205 Hudson Street campus in Tribeca, but canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the MFA Thesis Exhibition’s digital iteration aims to provide a new, expanded platform for young artists entering the field.