RON EHRLICH

Ron Ehrlich employs a wide range of techniques in his abstract paintings. Complex layers are built up through different processes and materials that combine traditional methods of oil painting with paint filled sticks, scrubbing, scrawls and a blowtorch. The result is a canvas rich with layers of aggressive marks and delicate lines. Subtle images of figures and horses emerge from the composition and then recede as they merge with the abstract. Ehrlich attempts to “bring about a moment of an ‘angle of repose’ within the contradiction of” his “own anxious state.”

Ehrlich received a BFA from Kansas City Art Institute and a MFA from Rhode Island School of Design. He lives and works in Rhode Island and shows extensively in New York, across the nation, and in Asia.

ROBERT RUSTERMIER

Jeff Johnson

Robert Rustermier’s work for his show at the Wheeler Gallery will be part of a new series called “At 1/2 Degree.” These abstract sculptures “ investigate relationships of surface and color using pigmented and nonpigmented waxes.” Layers of wax are formed by casting onto a ground at an incline. This over layering distorts the appearance of the ground where pigmented waxes are used while leaving a level of clarity where transparent waxes are used. The sculptures are accompanied with large drawings, which are also made from wax.

Jeff Johnson

Rustermier received a BFA from New College of the University of South Florida and a MFA for ceramics from Rhode Island School of Design. His work is exhibited across New England and in the Czech Republic.