Experts say that 29-year-old artist Erin Currier creates portraits that spring with an exalted zing from the flotsam and jetsam of our material world.

Represented by Stephen Parks at the Parks Gallery, 127 Bent St., Taos in New Mexico,  Erin has completed a remarkable portrait of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias ... part of a study of people and cultures in Argentina, Venezuela, Brazil, Peru and Bolivia.  She combined painting and drawing with collaged trash to create the work which symbolizes her great regard for El Presidente Chavez.

Parks tells VHeadline.com that his featured artist’s principle materials are discarded packaging, wrappers, newsprint and text, materials collected both locally and abroad, chosen for their graphic, chromatic and narrative qualities.

“Our country (USA) regularly spreads its waste throughout the globe, so politically it feels good for me to accomplish the opposite ... to bring waste of other countries back here, to ultimately be displayed and acquired in the form of fine art," says Erin Currier, seen here in detail from a self-portrait.

Stephen Parks, owner of the Parks Gallery says "there’s a theatrical, almost operatic quality to her current work ... subjects tend to be heroic in stature, sometimes rendered larger than life."

Currier's work is distinguished by the skill with which it is executed ... she begins with immaculate drawings of the figure, and then, working quickly and intuitively, overlays the drawing with cut-out shapes of trash. The eyes are always hand-painted, and often hands and feet. But even more important than her skill is the political and emotional content.

"I’m politically active through my art ... that’s how I express my beliefs ... I want to open the viewer’s mind a notch ... if I wasn’t able to do that, I wouldn’t do art. Beautiful art is certainly valid, but in my work, beauty seems circumstantial ... the spiritual and political meaning and the construction are foremost," she says.  "In our day and age of mass consumption, we are what we use ... we express our political beliefs, our intellect, our sexuality, who we are, by our use of product.”

Born 1975 in Haverhill, Marytland (USA), Erin Currier is a graduate of the Santa Fe College with one person exhibitions in an impressive list:

• 2005: (tentative) “Liberation Series, National Black Museum, St. Louis, MO
• 2004: “The Other America,” one person show. Parks Gallery, Taos, NM
• 2003: “Liberation Series,” one person show, Parks Gallery, Taos, NM
• 2003: “Liberation Series,” College of Santa Fe, Santa Fe.

and selected group exhibitions:

• 1999-2003: Tops Gallery, Malibu
• 2003: FOCA exhibition, Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe.
• 2003: “Art from the Heart,” invitational show, Millicent Rogers Museum, Taos.
• 2003: “Community Against Violence,” invitational show, Farnsworth Gallery, Taos.
• 2003: All Points Gallery, Taos.
• 2000-2001: Gallery Nomad, Taos
• 2001: Juried Annual Santa Fe Recycling Fair, Sweeney Center, Santa Fe
• 2002: Southside Bean
• 2000: Stables Art Gallery, Taos, NM
• 2000: Martinez Hacienda, Taos, NM
• 1999-2000: Gallery Dulcinea, Taos, NM
• 1999: Southside Bean, Taos, NM
• 1999: Altarra, Taos, NM
• 1999: Ramada Inn, Taos, NM
• 1999: Northside Bean, Taos, NM
• 1998: Stables Art Gallery, Taos, NM
• 1998: Southside Bean, Taos, NM

Her art has also appeared in:

• Atomica, August 2003
• Utne, July/August, 2003
• Santa Fean, April, 2003
• New Mexico Magazine, April 2002
• THE Magazine, October 1999, April 2002
• Tempo Magazine, Taos News, February, 1998, January and February, 2000, February and June, 2002, January and February 2003.
• Venus Envy Magazine, cover and interview, November 2002
• Horsefly, June, 2002, November 2002, December, 2003
• Taos Magazine, feature, October, 2002 and July, 2004
• Santa Fe New Mexican, Pasatiempo, April 2003, May 2002
• Albuquerque Journal, November, 2001, July, 2002, December 2002
• Su Casa Magazine, Autumn 2001
• Interview, National Public Radio, January 2000 and June 2002

Photography: Santiago Padilla