Cody Erickson

Warm & Cool

Cody Erickson is a representational painter born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1986. He earned a BFA in illustration from the College for Creative Studies in Detroit and an MFA from Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids in 2013, and he apprenticed with the painters Rich Nelson and Jeremy Lipking. He has painted full time since finishing his graduate degree. Erickson works primarily in oil on paper, a pairing that gives his surfaces a smooth, tactile quality. His subjects come from his relationship to the things that define him and the things he struggles with, which gives the work an ongoing personal narrative. He treats painting, a medium with deep historical roots, as a quiet counterpoint to a culture of instant digital images, and his realist work dwells on stillness, order and close attention to detail. Andrew Wyeth and Jeremy Lipking are among the painters whose work interests him most. Away from the studio, Erickson is an avid rock climber and backpacker who also paints outdoors from life. He hopes to visit more of climbing's landmark sites, both to climb and to paint them.