We recently connected with Eric LoPresti and have shared our conversation below.
Eric, so many exciting things to discuss, we can’t wait. Thanks for joining us and we appreciate you sharing your wisdom with our readers. So, maybe we can start by discussing optimism and where your optimism comes from?
My friends like to point out that although I look and sound like an optimist, I’m actually a fatalist! I make paintings about collapsing worlds and nuclear weapons — I mean how dark do you want to get?
I try to temper it with a bit of humor, and given that we are all on this planet for a limited time, I do what I can to ‘show up’ with my best self. I value happiness, joy and curiosity, so I try to meet people with enthusiasm, humility and openness. If that is interpreted as optimism, great! I’m currently feeling happy but I’m not naive — that feeling could be yanked away in a blink of an eye.
When I was 21 I had a near-death bike accident which left me alone in the middle of a desert, bleeding to death, staring up at the sky. I had no phone. I was miles from help. I could feel my life spilling out of me and I had only myself to blame.
Yet in the middle of this desperate situation I had an experience of the sublime. The sky was a deep cloudless cerulean. The sun, which threatened to kill me with dehydration, was shining bright — an ineffable scintillating star. It was the most beautiful scene I had ever witnessed and that moment formed my aesthetic: harsh meets beautiful. Sharp juxtapositions of dark and light.
Eventually I did make it to the hospital, with the help of a friend, a random firefighter and the family dog. The family dog —in a scene which would probably be considered corny were it written into a movie script — licked me awake so I could call 911.
It’s a whole saga but my point is: Even three decades later I feel lucky to be here. And when I paint this experience is always on my mind.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
Eric LoPresti makes artwork about collapsing landscapes, nuclear weapons and color. His paintings, videos and digital works juxtapose abstract motifs with imagery of effortful training and deserts of the American west. Following in the painterly tradition of the sublime, LoPresti’s art tracks novel representations of conflict and beauty within our transforming ecology.
Recent solo exhibitions include hold-still-life at the University of Rochester (NY), Center-Surround at Koki Arts (Tokyo), Superbloom at New Mexico State University, An Ocean of Light at Malin Gallery (NYC), and Test Site at the National Atomic Test Museum, part of the Smithsonian Institution (NV). A recipient of grants from the Carnegie Foundation of New York and The Devasthali Family Foundation Fund, LoPresti has been interviewed on international video by Reuters and the Washington Post. His work has been profiled in Tokyo Arts Beat, Artforum, Artnet, Business Insider, The Denver Post, Gizmodo, The Seattle Times, Vegas Seven Magazine and the Village Voice.
LoPresti holds a BA in Cognitive Science from the University of Rochester and an MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art.
He recently moved from Brooklyn and Los Angeles
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
First, I somehow came out-of-the-box with a high degree of energy — a pretty useful thing when you’re dumb enough to try and take on the world!
Second, the timing of my near-death experience was developmentally fortunate. My bike wreck happened when I was 21 — young enough to bounce back physically and old enough to learn a lesson or two (or three or four …)
Third, I got from my father a deep sense that self-reflection is not just useful, but essential to making sense of this world.
How would you spend the next decade if you somehow knew that it was your last?
My final decade could be now — ha! — so let’s just talk about this next year (2026).
I’m trying to make artworks which embody my experience, with all of the light and darkness, comedy and death, curiosity and fear which feels like it exists simultaneously. To do that, I’ve developed a compositional tactic which combines landscapes (I base my paintings off of photographs from California and New Mexico) with abstractions (in the form of painted masking tapes, overlaying the paintings).
Perhaps its an absurd juxtaposition, but then: what is this world if not an absurd collapsing of the sublime with the temporary?
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.ericlopresti.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elopresti
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericlopresti
Image Credits
All paintings and videos by Eric LoPresti
2020 – 2025
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
