Kathryn Markel Fine Arts is thrilled to present Foreign Parts, a series of new paintings by Eric Blum.

Eric Blum's paintings are the outcome of his persistent preoccupation with the fragility and elusiveness of peripheral perception, which prompts oddly poetic interpretations that don't always resemble the narrower view. While abstract in the formal sense, the work contains implied shapes that hint at situations and narratives just beyond reach. His method contributes to this incertitude. He marries dissimilar images by combining semi-transparent sheets of ink-washed, wax-infused silk, often cutting out or peeling off incompatible layers, or transplanting them from other works. Much of this is done with a willful blindness to the end result, not unlike the latent image of a photographic print immersed in the darkroom's developing tray.

In a marked shift, Blum has removed much of the weight and dimensional effect found in his earlier works. These new paintings have an unadorned immediacy that more closely reflects his drawing practice. The previously soft edges have been replaced by fractures, patches, slices and spills. His approach here is to limit choice and, as dictated by guidelines, permit things to fall. Blum poses the question, "How do random elements of differing natures encounter, intersect and emulsify into relationships?"

Blum was born in Fresno, CA, grew up in Los Angeles and currently lives in New York City. He was educated at UCLA and Central St Martin's, London. His work has been shown in venues that include: The Contemporary Art Center, Cincinnati; Albright Knox Gallery, Buffalo, NY; Usdan Gallery, Bennington College, VT; Knoxville Art Museum, Knoxville, TN; Museum of Contemporary Art, Boulder, CO; Kresge Art Museum at Michigan State University; Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ. Blum has been awarded grants from The New York Foundation for the Arts in 2008 and The Pollock-Krasner Foundation in 1998 and 2001.