Eric Niebuhr,
Hong Kong-based American-Australian

Eric Niebuhr was born in La Marque, Texas in 1972, artist Eric Niebuhr is soon to be a Hong Kong permanent resident and has also lived in Houston, London, Los Angeles and Sydney. He held his first solo exhibition in Hong Kong in 2015, and has shown internationally including the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London and the Jewish Museum in San Francisco. In addition to receiving reviews in numerous publications including Artforum magazine and The Los Angeles Times, he has recently been featured in Timeout, Artnews, The South China Morning Post, Reuters TV, and a RTHK Hong Kong Heritage radio program, and had his artwork featured on the cover of Art Map.

Eric Niebuhr is an artist who draws his inspiration and works directly from the world around him, focusing the last few years on everyday scenes in Hong Kong streets. Chance and circumstance is something that continue to be a strong pull for discovering visual sources. “My current developing series reference trolley pushcarts (手推車) used for transporting goods and rubbish on the streets of Hong Kong.” The artist explained. The improvised use of materials to bundle objects on the carts become the composition source for colour, line, and shapes in the paintings. The arrangement of bungee cords, ribbons, fabrics and ropes tangled on the cart formed an uncanny yet unexpected beauty that impressed the artist. Since that momentary encounter, Eric started purposefully following the trolley carts across districts. When one is walking through the streets of Hong Kong, these trolley carts are the threads and needles that knit the city together.
Please check out the Hong Kong-based artist Eric Niebuhr’s interview in RTHK about his ongoing solo exhibition Twisted & Tangled.