Born in 1972,
TR Ericsson grew up in the small town of Willoughby, Ohio. For over 20 years his practice has constructed an expansive and conceptual mixed-media portrait spanning four generations of a family in the American Midwest; a project which grapples with time, love, loss, memory and mourning while observing cultural change and challenges, particularly those related to labor, mental health and gender. Ericsson applies a personal approach embracing vulnerability, sincerity, intimacy and compassion to explore the human condition and universal hardships noting that as so many things seem to change, the existential concerns persist and remain.
Ericsson's work is in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York, US), the Dallas Museum of Art (US), the Cleveland Museum of Art (US), the Everson Museum of Art (US), The Museum of Modern Art (New York, US) and many other prestigious public and private collections. His books and zines can be found in numerous library collections including the Yale University Arts Library (New Haven, US) and the Smithsonian Institution Libraries (Washington, US). His exhibitions have frequently been featured in prominent publications including The New York Times, The Brooklyn Rail, Art Forum, Art in America, Hyperallergic and others. The artist has earned the following awards: The Paris Photo-Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards Shortlist: Photography Catalogue of the Year (2015) and Kraszna-Krausz Book Awards 2016 Best Photography Books Shortlist, the 91st International Print Center Award, Philadelphia, PA (2017) and in 2019 Ericsson was a finalist of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery's sixth triennial Outwin Boochever American Portrait Competition with his large scale nicotine work,
Bride, a portrait of his mother. In 2023, Ericsson began his project "57 Years" in which he will paint one work for each year of his mother's life. The project will be completed in 2029 when he turns 57. The first finished paintings are shown at Art Brussels. Later this year TBW Books will release "Nicotine", the first publication dedicated to Ericsson's haunting nicotine works.
In a solo presentation at Art Brussels 2024, the gallery will present a selection of works created between the late 1990s and 2024, including oil paintings, publications and works printed in unusual materials including nicotine, alcohol and funerary ashes.