Eric Sweet’s exhibit “Come to Nothing” has been three-and-a-half years in the making.
According to a news release, Sweet received a bachelor of fine arts degree from MU in 1997. His work has been included in exhibitions in Michigan, Missouri, Boston and Arizona. Now, Sweet’s work will make its way to MU’s George Bingham Gallery on Nov. 28.
Sweet’s “Come to Nothing” seeks to be what Sir Thomas More intended a utopia to be: a critique of a current situation and a model for comparison. The works in “Come to Nothing” are an intense exploration of the paradoxes present in the concept of the “ideal” through the historical inventions of minimalism, utopia, perspective, printmaking and drawing.
“It is a complicated set of ideas I am working with,” Sweet said.
The exhibit includes multiple self-contained, internally lit, low reliefs sculptural drawings created with dehumanized hand-drawn marks and imagery visible only under ideal conditions, the work showcases the way a mark moves physically from idea to object. Each mark manipulates the fiber of the paper matrix on which it is drawn in a similar way an idea manipulates the fiber of reality when it is manifested in the world.
Sweet developed his concept through his interests.
“I am interested when ideal situations are implemented in real life, and the executions of those plans,” Sweet said.
Sweet’s work combines historical utopias with controlled linear perspective, as well as including the Minimalist movement, which is a chiefly American movement in the visual arts and music originating in New York City in the late 1960s and characterized by extreme simplicity of form and a literal, objective approach.
Sweet said he hopes his exhibit will evoke conversation.
“I hope it will enrich the conversation,” Sweet said, “Specifically enriching conversation around idealized communities and the planning of communities.”
Sweet’s show will run 5 to 7 p.m. from Nov. 28 to Dec. 2 in the Bingham Gallery. On Nov 30, Sweet will be giving an artist lecture at his exhibit.
“I will be talking about the aesthetic lineage and basically my concepts and reasoning for this exhibit,” Sweet said.
After this exhibit, Sweet will be preparing for a solo exhibition at the Carter Art Center in Kansas City, Mo., in February 2012.