Emma Grayson in Conversation with Emerging Artist Eytan J. Baer
Eytan J. Baer makes a mess every time he steps into the studio. Flying paint, hot glue, and glitter decorate the apartment he calls his home and studio, in addition to old and new works of all shapes and sizes. Despite this, his works wouldn’t necessarily be called messy, but energetic, frantic, and alive. After a glance over each canvas, you see something new.
It’s an emotional thing to put so much of yourself into a work of art. It is even more so and potentially frustrating when one literally lives among their art after completion, as in this case, where Baer’s studio is only steps from his couch. It can be problematic if you have no platform to express that creativity, but luckily, with his curly mop of hair and funky style, Baer has been able to use social media to show himself and his work to the world.
Having recently wrapped up his first solo exhibition in London, we sat down with the artist to learn more about his practice, discuss hidden meanings and the power of representation, and the interconnectivity between his persona and his imagination.
Baer at his solo exhibition Mind 2 Mind at Chelsea’s 508 Gallery.
Emma Grayson: Three words to describe your works and why. Ready? Go.
Eytan J. Baer: So I would say; vibrant, textural, and thought-provoking. Why vibrant? Because I find there is a complexity to the emotion that I try to translate onto the canvas through colour, making my works contain certain energy. In other words, I see my colours as energy on the canvas and that translates into feelings a viewer might experience looking at my art.
Texture on the other hand is literally what surrounds us in our daily life. It’s everywhere we look, and we as humans are naturally attracted to different textures that I feel directly correlate with our feelings about life.
And being thought-provoking, for me, is a necessity within my art because I see the process as a release of my inner consciousness. I also make sure to keep in mind that everybody sees differently. It is essential for me that the viewer be able to have an inner dialogue with themselves while looking at my creations. Without a work being thought-provoking, I don’t consider it a strong piece of art. I want people to have a moment to themselves.
Baer working on Gilgul 1, 2021. Oil and aerosol. 152 x 123 cm.
EG: Who or what encouraged you to pursue art in life, then? Can you tell us a bit about your background and how you got to where you are today?
EJB: I had the privilege of growing up in a really creative family where art was a very strong influence in my daily life; it was a necessity in order for me to express myself. More specifically, I had the opportunity to live side-by-side with an artist, one who enabled me to aspire to be my own version of the artist I felt I could be. I remember getting asked by the women in my family to help with aesthetic things growing up like redoing the living room or designing a jewellery piece with my grandma and dad. My biggest inspiration to pursue art is my grandmother I would say, as I grew up surrounded by artists such as Rodin, Francis, and Chagall at her home. My favourite painting there is this huge Sam Francis in the dining room.
EG: It’s interesting you say that, I even see a little Sam Francis in some of your works. Have you ever thought about how growing up around that influenced your own style?
EJB: I wouldn’t say I’ve really thought about it before, but I do agree. I definitely feel inspired by him and feel really lucky to have been exposed to that. I was given the space to start painting at the age of four with my mom in a little art shed on the roof of my house in Israel. After that, we moved to Switzerland when I was six or seven years old, and I started art classes after school, which I did not particularly like, but which taught me the basic fundamentals. Fast forward to when I was ten to 15 years old, I was creating paintings at home and actually ended up selling two to a family friend. At that age, after making money from my art, I realized, “holy shit, I could do this!” But 15 can be a difficult age, and I stopped creating for a while. I moved to America at the age of 16 to study in Vermont and ended up going to university in Miami. After finishing school in 2015, I moved to London where I regained a passion for my art practice and I haven’t stopped since then.
EG: On Instagram, we see you posing with your art; how much of yourself can be found in your pieces? Are there any larger themes that you explore within your work?
EJB: I find my art to be the most profound depiction of myself in every aspect. It represents my mind, my emotions, and, in essence, my soul in a tangible form. I think that there isn’t a way for me to express myself without representing myself. I actually wish there were more pictures of me with my art on Instagram! It’s so important for me to be able to be me in my art. There are a few larger themes I explore such as politics, gender identity, emotion, mental health, society, and psychology. I couldn’t even tell you which is more important for me to explore because these issues all are equally important to me and to my work.
Eytan J. Baer, Your Trash is My Treasure 4, 2020. Mixed media on wood panel. 76 x 106 cm.
EG: You occasionally incorporate mixed media on the canvas. Where do you find these materials and how significant are they overall?
EJB: Mixed media for me is freedom, as I don’t want to think that I need to be restricted to a certain process. Through the years, I have found many ways to include different materials in my process such as fabrics, acrylics, or metals. In essence, I like to look at the application of mixed media as a “your trash is my treasure”-type idea. It is something I have always done and something I will always do.
For example, my roommate and brother from another mother Amos had an old mirror that broke, so I took it and repurposed it for my art. Things break around us all the time, and it’s in our hands to figure out how to reuse them. Everything can have a second life if you’re creative enough. Going to a lot of flea markets growing up gave me this whole idea of buying something to reuse or buying something because it looked good, regardless of the function it has. Sometimes objects are beautiful without them having an inherent function.
EG: It really is all about what you make of it. Now once you have these materials, take us through a perfect day in the studio. How do you begin and what is that process like?
EJB: I like to set a vibe for myself. I get myself in the studio and usually take a deep breath, choose my canvas, set up my ideas, and go with my gut.
The perfect day is when I spend most of it in the studio and don’t realize how much time has gone past. It’s like I’m in a trance when I have complete synergy with what’s around me. I lose track of time like this when I find a point where I am fully inspired by all my surroundings. Sometimes I might dance or sing, but I wouldn’t say I have a specific genre of music that I like or don’t like. Because I live in my studio, it’s really about finding that creative space for myself and letting go. Sometimes there’s a short burst of energy and then I might stop, and sometimes I can go a few hours without rest. Normally, I can’t give my attention for so incredibly long, but if I’m in it, I’m in it, and I don’t even feel time.
Baer in his home studio in London.
EG: What is something that people wouldn’t normally recognize in your art, but that might still be important for you to get across to the viewer?
EJB: In a more obvious sense, I like to repurpose everyday items one would not see as art and use these as textural elements within my art. I talked about the importance of texture to me, and I find it is also a brilliant way to disguise different meanings and feeling in pieces I create. By having different layers, I can harbour my own feelings within my work because it’s a psychological release for me to paint in the way that I do. It is the same reason why Basquiat would scratch words out on his canvases because his philosophy about it was that if you see a word scratched out, it makes a viewer look harder to see underneath. I am not enormously influenced by Basquiat, but there are a few ideas he had that I interpret for myself.
Another influence was James Watkins, who inspired me by showing his own process and philosophy about working. He keeps the ideas present while moving through the painting, so you still see the initial idea as the first layer on the canvas combined with subsequent inspirations. We have the additive method and the other is the subtractive method. They are opposite, yet give a sense of depth to the art I make. The additive is as it sounds - adding and painting and glueing things on to make the work more sculptural. The subtractive is when you build the colour up and essentially scratch it off. This builds depth on a flat surface really well, and even though these methods represent something physical on my canvas, I hope the viewer can read further into the deeper meaning that lies just below the surface.
Detailed view of Your Trash is My Treasure 4, 2020.
EG: Tell us more about your first, recent solo gallery exhibition.
EJB: The show was called Mind 2 Mind, and the whole purpose of it was so people could enter into this space that was “the mind of an artist” and be comfortable feeling what they feel, seeing what they see, judging what they judge; to go through the show with an open mind.
I am going against the philosophy of the art world forcing you in one direction, but instead having the viewer see what they want to see and ask questions after. I rediscovered my paintings in this way, and it made me fall in love with my work again.
After talking to people in the gallery, I saw new faces or shapes and got to see my own art through the viewers’ eyes. It wasn’t about the “selling” aspect necessarily, but to let people know, “I’m out here and doing this for real.” It was a step in the right direction, and the realization that everyone who stepped through the door was there to see things that I made was very emotional for me. By presenting my work in a certain way with certain attention to detail, it made the art feel like it had levelled up completely. So many people stopped to have a look inside, even people in cars got honked at for lingering on the street out front even after the light turned green. I wouldn’t have been able to pull it off without my incredible team though, who also helped me pull off a two-hour live performance in the gallery where I literally went crazy on a blank canvas. It was one of those surreal moments where I started painting and then picked up my head and it was a few hours later. That’s what I call a trance from getting into the vibe.
EG: What do you have coming up next?
EJB: There is so much I want to say because I want to do so much. I really want to explore the relationship between sound and creation and what it takes for me to feel a certain way and paint in a certain way because of the sounds surrounding me. To incorporate sound into my process, it will take time for me to understand how it affects my mind, however.
In the meantime, I hope to have another solo show soon and maybe collaborate with other artists. I sold a work right off the wall at my exhibition to a random couple who happened to come in to see another artist’s work. It was a very emotional experience for me, so I hope to keep that energy coming for the future and continue to sell my works to people who support the authentic me.
Thanks to Eytan Baer on behalf of MADE IN BED.
Emma Grayson
Contributing Writer, MADE IN BED