Lovesick

New artwork by Erin Stafford
April 13-May 18, 2019
Opening reception Saturday, April 13, 6:00-8:00 pm
Artist will be in attendance

The catalyst for the solo exhibition presented by KHFA artist Erin Stafford titled Lovesick stems from the fear of being forgotten by someone whom you care strongly about. This insatiable desire to be remembered has sparked a curious desire in the new artwork by Stafford to travel back in time. This fanciful impulse will manifest through various tableaux within the gallery. Many of the sculptures and installations in the exhibition will provide the viewer with subtle, yet uncanny narrative content, lavishly connecting to the mise-en-scène. These richly textured mementos will coalesce with the aesthetics of entropy, suggesting the fruitless yearning for remembrance. The intent is to connect the viewer with tactile sensations that evoke memories of the past with the opportunity into escape to dream-like visions layered with mystery, whimsy and absurdity.

Artist Biography

Erin Stafford's aesthetic tendencies are reflected in her studio practice as a result of her affluent upbringing in Dallas, where she found upper-middle class expectations full of irony and contradiction. Her influences stem from her perception of this cultural refinement, including various forms of rituals and traditions that have evolved from anachronistic forms of propriety from bygone eras.

Stafford began her art education in painting and drawing at the University of North Texas. It was here that she began to question established social conventions while surrounded by eccentric artists and jazz musicians. After receiving her MFA at the University of Texas at San Antonio in 2009, she returned to her home town to begin her curatorial endeavors at the artist-run space Red Arrow Contemporary. While continuing her studio practice, Stafford began experimentation in diverse mediums and challenged her art-making process with sculpture and installation.