Erik Šille was born in Rožňava, Slovakia in 1978. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava under Professor Ivan Csudai and graduated in 2006.
A single glance at one of Šille’s paintings is sufficient to understand that the artist is a product of his environment and era. Moreover, Šille responds to both with a critical eye. Aesthetically, his influences are as numerous as they are evident: comic books, cartoons, video games, street art, graffiti, tattoo, advertising, political messaging and other aspects of street and popular culture. He combines all of these s into surreal compositions that are morbid in tone and subject matter. This can lead to Dadaist ensembles, with the likes of Delacroix’s the Barque of Dante, Arnold Böcklin and South Park all present in the paintings Last Boating (2009) or Hello History (2010).
Šille has a distinguishable style based on bold acrylic colours that he applies in smooth layers. His brushwork is so precise and neat that it seems to disappear, simulating the use of sprayed stencil rather than traditional gestural application. Residual dirtying sprays, drips and lines are all intentional. Recently, however, a tendency towards imperfection has conferred a more handmade feel to some of his work.
Such purposeful technical perfection, which emulates the digital definition of many of his influences, underlines the thematic atrocities Šille takes up. His protagonists, cartoonish beings and animals, are often portrayed in dark scenarios involving destruction or torture, and omnipresent and immediate threats. Often, the danger is synonymous with more abstract realities, such as capitalism, globalisation, digitalisation, consumerism, and other consequences of modern society. By including so many aspects of contemporary popular culture and its affiliated objects of consumption, Šille dissects them, both metaphorically and literally. Indeed, among the acts of violence that he portrays, anatomical dissection is recurrent, as in his 2015 work, Anatomy. These visual cues are means through which Šille operates his autopsy of our current climate without offering a clear personal perspective on it.
Recent exhibitions include: Vitra Collector’s Lounge, DSC Gallery, Prague (2017); Error, Kunsthalle, Bratislava (2017); Erik Šille, ODD Gallery, Badung, Bali, Indonesia (2016); Nature 2.0, with Heike Schäfer, Kro Art Gallery, Vienna (2016); Anatomy of Quandary, Krokus Gallery, Bratislava (2015); Finally, with Boris Sirka, Ateliér XIII, Bratislava (2015); Sleeping water II, Schemnitz gallery, Banská Štiavnica, Slovakia (2015); Nestálosť molekúl (Instability of Molecules), with Petr Kvíčala, Kasárne/Kulturpark, Košice, Slovakia (2015); and Sleeping water, Galéria Plusmínusnula, Žilina, Slovakia (2015).
Awards include: Young Artist Laureate of the Tatra Bank Fund (2010); first place at the VÚB Foundation Painting Competition (2009); third place at the VÚB Foundation Painting Competition (2006); an award at the Fourth Zlín Youth Salon, Czechia (2006)
The residences he has been awarded include: Banská St a Nica, Banská Štiavnica, Slovakia (2012); Youkobo Art Space, Tokyo (2013); Tannery Arts Center, Santa Cruz, CA, USA (2014); and Slow Punch, Canggu, Bali, Indonesia (2016).
Šille lives and works in Bratislava.
