Stephen Eichhorn received his BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2006. He is the current artist in residence at Columbia College’s Digital Print Lab and has recently been collaborating with the photography and design group New Catalogue.
If you had to explain your work to a stranger, what would you say? Medium to large scale hand-cut collage.
What kinds of things are influencing your work right now? Orchids and heavy metal.
What materials do you use in your work and what is your process like? All of my collage work is made out of hand-cut components—I typically spend a quarter of production time collecting materials. The base structure of the collages can be related to the inherent patterning of the individual plant components that I start each piece off with. This patterning is repeated in form/shape/color and layered to create depth in the collages. Each component is collected from a variety of sources: houseplant books, magazines from the 70’s, vintage dead stock photographic wallpaper. And there’s this video for a little context.
What artists are you interested in right now? These people have been “blowing my mind” at the moment: Jessica Paulson (always), Brion Nuda Rosch, John Opera, architect Terunobu Fujimori, Creatures of the Wind (Shane Gabier and Chris Peters), Cody Hudson, New Catalogue (Luke Batten and Jon Sadler) and Dominic Paul Moore.
What was the last exhibition you saw that stuck out to you? Bryson Gill’s solo show, “Mirror, Mirror” at Triple Base in San Francisco.
What do you do when you’re not working on art? I walk my two toy poodles, make some jewelry and drink beer.
What are you really excited about right now? Moving or not moving from my apartment.
What are your plans for the next year? Several new zines and artist books in the works. New website (finally). Large prints in the works. Cat prints in the works. Some group shows in Chicago and elsewhere. Installation in the master suite at the Longman & Eagle hotel. Early ‘11 solo show at Ebersmoore.
Any current or upcoming shows we should know about? At the end of the month I’m showing a selection of work made during the Digital Print Lab Residency at A+D Gallery here in Chicago. Opens Friday, July 30, 5-8pm and is one night only.
*Portrait of Stephen Eichhorn by Luke Batten of New Catalogue.