Erik Waterkotte

Erik Waterkotte is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Art & Art History at UNC Charlotte.  He received his MFA from the University of Alberta in 2005 and his BFA from Illinois State University in 2001. While completing his BFA, he studied printmaking for a semester at the University of Wolverhampton in the U.K.

As an artist, Waterkotte is interested in referencing the beauty and terror of the Sublime, walking the line between representation and abstraction, form and formless. His work is an exploration of popular culture, myth, and fantasy as conveyed through printmaking and mixed-media. Using mixed print media, collage, and digital applications, he creates layered imagery that both elucidates and obscures.

Waterkotte has shown his work both nationally and internationally. Recent exhibitions include, Utopia/Dystopia at the Urban Institute of the Contemporary Arts, The Hartnett Print Biennial at the University of Richmond Museum, The Global Matrix II andIII at the Purdue University Galleries, THENOW Contemporary Prints/Historical Perspectives at the University of Minnesota, and the Hong Kong Graphic Arts Festival at the Hong Kong City Hall. His most recent solo-exhibitions were at the Open Studio Gallery in Toronto and the Haas Gallery at Bloomsburg University, PA. His work is part of several collections and he has participated in numerous national and international print portfolios.

Waterkotte has been a visiting artist at universities throughout the United States, and has been the recipient of a Minnesota State Arts Board Emerging Artist Initiative Grant. He has also taught at Minnesota State University Mankato and Indiana University.