EJ Hauser

EJ HAUSER / ISLAND PRESS NEW EDITIONS

One word I keep coming back to when I think about EJ Hauser’s subtle, luminous paintings is flicker. They toggle between abstraction and representation, what is veiled and what is seen, between the analog and the digital. The artist has observed that the imagery in these canvases exists in a place between “known symbolic language and poetic language.”

This same quality of flicker is evident in Hauser’s drawing, which is an integral part of their practice. Trees, waves, mountains, words and letters move in and out of our perception as they are subsumed into an abstract whole. The artist deftly employs a broken, staccato line somewhat reminiscent of early Warhol drawings. In fact, Hauser has spoken of the indelible impression left by a 1989 exhibition of early Warhol drawings at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia, which they saw at the age of twenty-two.

The four prints that Hauser has created for Island Press have a direct relationship to this drawing practice. Laser engraving onto a plexi plate produces an image that closely replicates the artist’s hand; Hauser said that in the creation of these prints, they “start with a particular drawing, and then work towards that drawing.”

This is evident in Star Hive, in which a shape suggestive of a mountain or haystack, rendered in a dense black and gray dot matrix, is visible under a layer of looser vertical strokes and splashes. The dark gray print Laserbuds is a tour de force arrangement of strangely viscous strokes in white, black, and medium gray which feel both impassioned and visceral.

This replication of Hauser’s hand is clearly seen in the sparer print Cat Crowns, in which simply drawn, enigmatic shapes are echoed in dotted lines. Here, the addition of a small pink collagraph shape to the refined palette of black, white and grays provides a subtle, unexpected grace note.

In Waves, the fourth print in the suite, the drawn shapes flicker between mountains, houses, waves—and an abstract arrangement of lines. The softer gray dotted lines contribute to the multiple readings of Hauser’s very personal imagery.

Essay by Jay Gorney, independent curator and advisor

EJ Hauser (they/them) lives and works in both Brooklyn and Upstate NY, and is represented by Derek Eller Gallery in New York City and Haverkampf & Leistenschneider in Berlin.

Hauser’s paintings are both graphic and open to interpretation, teetering between iconography and something familiar but abstract. This imagery shifts between omnivorous references both ancient and current — the paintings are mysterious talismans, employing buzzing pallets and marks that dance. Stuttering lines form a visual code like musical notes, which coalesce with atmospheric layers to create ineffable messages.

Hauser’s source library draws from the natural world, imagery that is cross-pollinated with the formal qualities found in craftwork like rugs, fabrics, wallpapers, and mosaics, as well as digital visual characteristics, which they interpret through drawing and then transliterate onto canvas. Each piece is composed of multiple layers of color.

They have shown extensively throughout the United States and Europe, including Anton Kern Gallery, New York, NY; Haverkampf Leistenschneider, Berlin, DE; Brigitte Mulholland Paris, FR; Parrasch Heijnen, Los Angeles, CA; Sperone Westwater, New York, NY; White Columns, New York, NY; Participant Inc., New York, NY; Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, New York, NY; Cheim & Read, New York, NY; The Journal Gallery, New York, NY; AWHRHWAR, Los Angeles, CA; KARST, Brighton, UK; The Breeder, Athens, GR.

Hauser ‘s work has been featured in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Frieze, The Brooklyn Rail, BOMB Magazine, and Turps Banana, among others. Hauser received a BFA from University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA and an MFA from University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC. They are a recipient of the 2021 American Academy of Arts and Letters Purchase Prize. In the Fall of 2023, Hauser was the Teiger Mentor in the Arts at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.