About
Photo Credit: Marshall Cox
I make paintings, objects and environments that refer to and engage with the body. I view bodies as visceral beings that are porous with our environment. I am interested in the fluidity of the sensate body that is always in communication with itself and its surroundings. Using raw pigment, found objects, rain and wax in my process, my paintings are artifacts of a time and space. Through repeatedly rubbing, washing and scraping surfaces over time, I work with the language of abstraction to evoke a guttural response and point to a raw, interior space. I work on both a cerebral and instinctive level; once I have a site or place in mind, I allow the space to speak to me and dictate the direction of the work. Often I will leave a piece in the elements for days or weeks and allow the natural interventions of sun, rain, dew, insects, animals and wind affect the work. Other times I respond to a space by cleaning the floors with the canvas itself. The end result evokes the feeling of time and space through layering of marks and material.
Research plays a large role in my work. My visual language is informed by imagery that is often difficult to see – scopes of the internal body, ultrasound and x-ray imagery, photos taken by the Hubble telescope, microscopic images showing viral makeup of Covid-19, and underground cave systems. Entering into unknown, dark places serves as a literal and metaphorical starting point for me and my process of working. I seek connections between the micro and macro, always trying to come to terms with our place on the planet. The larger question for me is understanding the interdependency of how we exist within our environment and how our environment exists in us.
Erika Jaeggli was born in Baltimore, MD and grew up on Caves Road. She received her B.A. in art history from Columbia University and M.A. from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts Interactive Telecommunications Program, and M.F.A. in Drawing and Painting from the University of North Texas in Denton. Her work has been shown in Texas, California, Maryland, Arkansas and Missouri. Jaeggli’s work is featured in the current issue of New American Paintings, and has been featured twice in Studio Visit Magazine. She is a Board Member of Texas Vignette, a non-profit dedicated to promoting and supporting women in the arts in Texas. She has been artist-in-residence at the Dallas Arboretum. Recent notable accomplishment is receiving a TACA Pop-Up Grant for her on-site work at the Boedeker Building, a historical 100-year old former ice cream factory in Dallas, TX. Additionally, she was a 2021 recipient of The Dozier Travel Grant from the Dallas Museum of Art. Currently, Jaeggli is a lecturer at The University of Texas at Dallas and lives in Dallas, TX.
CV
EDUCATION
M.F.A University of North Texas, College of Visual Arts & Design, Drawing & Painting
M.A. New York University, Tisch School of the Arts, Interactive Technology Program
B.A. Columbia University, Major: Art History, Minor: German Studies
GRANTS
Dallas Museum of Art: The Otis and Velma Davis Dozier Travel Grant (2021)
TACA Pop-Up Grant for Flesh & Bone at the Cedars Union (2021)
Solo Exhibitions
Peep in the Deep, Arts Fort Worth, Fort Worth, TX (2022)
Erika Jaeggli: 19 Paintings, Union Gallery, Denton, TX (2021)
Flesh & Bone: New Work by Erika Jaeggli, Cedars Union Boedeker Building, Dallas, TX (2021)
FOMO, WAAS Gallery, Dallas, TX (2015)
Pantheon, The Ward Center for the Arts, Baltimore, MD (2015)
Two and Three Person Exhibitions
Territorial: New Works by Maria Villanueva, Victoria Gonzales, and Erika Jaeggli, The Union Gallery, Denton, TX (2020)
The Artist’s Garden: New Works by Alison Jardine & Erika Jaeggli, The Dallas Arboretum, Dallas, TX (2013)
Remnant: New Paintings by Sonali Khatti and Erika Jaeggli, Janette Kennedy Gallery, Dallas, TX (2013)
Selected Group Exhibitions
Further Than Light or Language, Voloshyn Gallery, Miami, FL; Curator: Lilia Kudelia (2023)
VOID, SP/N Gallery, Curated by: Danielle Avram and Brian Scott, Dallas, TX (2023)
Remade/Readymade/Powerade, Dallas, TX (2021)
Reclamation: Artists Books on the Environment, San Francisco Center for the Book, San Francisco, CA (2021)
Irene Rosenzweig Biennial Juried Exhibition, The Arts & Science Center for Southeast Arkansas, (2021)
Rio Brazos Art Exhibition, Granbury, TX (2021)
January Group Art Show, Jones Gallery, Kansas City, MO (2021)
Vignette Art Fair, Women’s Museum at Fair Park, Dallas, TX (2018)
Vignette Art Fair, Women’s Museum at Fair Park, Dallas, TX (2017)
Inaugural Show, ModArtists Gallery, Dallas, TX (2014)
Summer Juried Show, Sylvia White Gallery, Ventura, CA, Juror: Sylvia White (2013)
Trans-, The McKinney Avenue Contemporary, Dallas, TX (2012)
7 Takes on a Landscape, Austin Art Connections, Austin, TX (2012)
Plano 125, Collin College, Plano, TX (2012)
Five x Seven, Arthouse, Austin, TX (2012)
The Goldilocks Show, Lytle Pressley Contemporary, Austin, TX (2012)
Juried Print Exhibitions
New American Paintings, Volume 162, Juror: Tyler Blackwell, Curator of Contemporary Art at the Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY (2022)
Studio Visit, Volume Thirty-Three, Juror: Michael Lash, Independent Curator and former Director of Public Arts, City of Chicago (2015)
Studio Visit, Volume Twenty-Four, Juror: Barbara O’Brien, Executive Director, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO (2013)
Community Involvement
Board Member of Texas Vignette: Programming Chair (2022 - present)
Advisory Council Member, Vignette (2017-2022)
Board Member of Texas Vignette, (2017)
Board Member, Texas Women’s Caucus for Art (2016-17)
Press
“Dallas Artist Found Her ‘Authentic Self’ at College”, Columbia College Today, March 2022.