Erik de Bree lets his paintings be defined by processing the coincidence and the outcome of change and decision making. He glues layers of wallpaper on wooden panels and rips them off again, letting the material itself determine what the next step should be. Sometimes the paper is randomly loosely painted with acrylics or with a spray-can and then covered with yet another layer of wallpaper waiting to be partially ripped away again. This process happens over and over until a satisfying result is reached. The works remind us of abstract billboards left aside on the road and are covered with many layers of determined images from a forgotten unknown symbolic world. The works are balanced between form and non-form, between coincidence and chance, a sort of break-even point where nothing needs to be added or to be completed. His art practice is mostly about creating the environment for these coincidences to happen and to destroy them over and over again as a need to limit the options and to create a solid outcome. Erik de Bree his works establishes itself by an unfulfilling need for new images to shred, to manipulate, and to create order and chaos at the same time.
‘PATTERNS’