Statement:

As one of a growing body of artists in the current field of environmental art, I have devoted myself to the investigation of contemporary notions of place. My personal artistic research not only addresses how we, as humans, culturally connect to the landscapes that surround us, it also focuses on the complexities of that connection in a world where the environment is loved and abused simultaneously. 

Most recently I have been creating paintings based on the iconic visual language of the American Sublime landscape painters who traveled to the western United States and abroad. The imagery that I create addresses the role these artists played in the expansionism of Manifest Destiny by using their sublime visual structure to paint the artifacts of what their work helped bring about: the boom of industry, development and growth (and all its subsequent issues) that we continue to see today. 

Bio:

Erika Osborne received her BFA from the University of Utah in painting and drawing and her MFA from the University of New Mexico. Erika’s artwork deals with cultural connections to place and environment. She has exhibited extensively nationally and internationally, with over ten solo exhibitions and over 45 group exhibitions in recent years - including shows at the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Nevada Museum of Art and the Chautauqua Institute.  Erika has also been the recipient of numerous grants and awards, locally, nationally and internationally. Her work has been highlighted in three books surveying the evolution of land and environmental art in the West. It has also been featured in regional publications along with international art magazines such as New American Paintings, Art Papers, Sculpture Magazine and Southwest Art Magazine. 

As well as being a practicing artist, Erika Osborne has dedicated herself to university level art education. From 2008-2013 Erika worked as an Assistant Professor at West Virginia University, teaching painting and drawing along side two environmentally driven field courses titled, Art and Environment and Place: Appalachia.  Erika is now teaching painting in the Art Department at Colorado State University. She is also developing place-based programming that will be offered in the fall of 2014.

Erika Osborne joined Artnauts in 2014.