Erika Chapman

June 1 – 25, 2021

Opened M-F, 12-6PM
Or by Appointment on Weekends

Erik Chapman paints cats.
Back in September 2018 she started painting them on the sandwich bags that housed her daughter’s lunch for school, and the phenomena now known as ” The Sandwich Cats” was born. Since then her portraits have gotten much more elaborate and painted on archival surfaces, not bags. Erika donates a portion of the proceeds from her art sales to help her local West Palm Beach feline rescue and TNVR (trap-neuter-vet-release) programs in the area, too, because “they do great things to end suffering and need all the help they can get.”

Artist’s statement:
The Internet is for Cats (2021) is a selection of recent paintings from my ongoing project, The Sandwich Cats. While the majority of Sandwich Cats are commissioned portraits, the subjects in this exhibition were selected by me from a group of willing online participants.

I am fascinated with the crystalline galaxies in cats’ eyes, the depth of feeling they can express and their range of personalities. The process of examining and reexamining emotions through feline faces is mirrored in the application of translucent washes over top of one another. Ghostlike in the beginning, layer by layer the painting solidifies into a complete image/thought/feeling. Sometimes it is an indulgent nap in the sun, others are an explosion of teeth, fur and flowers.

Each work is titled with the cat’s name and the date I posted it with the source and narrative. The tags and stories are important; they connect the painting to its origin in the lives of several real beings: human, feline, and nosy observer. They celebrate the relationships we have with our soft alien roommates, the truths behind the memes. A byproduct of The Sandwich Cats has been the development of an inclusive group of animal and art lovers, a haven from the pervasive negative messaging elsewhere online and in social media. We celebrate each other’s successes and provide virtual comfort in difficult times. I see this community as part of the project, a multimedia experience beyond the painting and an opportunity for me to contribute to feline rescue efforts.

About the artist:
Erika Chapman is best known for her semi-realistic paintings of house cats, from sweet souls to ridiculous beings belly up on the floor, the ancient and otherworldly and the predators made all of teeth and claws. Many are mourning portraits for someone’s lost pet. Some are a plea for rescue, while others explore the fate of instincts in the luxury of domestication.

She has had a lifelong love of animals and finds purpose in using her art to direct support to feline rescue and TNR (trap-neuter-release) groups. Other influences on her work show up more discreetly, color choices and gestures relating to vivid dreams of places remembered from childhood. Magical ones such as her mother’s garden, the cemetery, tree tunnels and rope swings, and the terrifying ones recalled in anxiety, crushing crowds and mean girls, too much motion.

Erika grew up in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, where her earliest interests were art, writing and horses. Undecided on whether to pursue art or English in college, she took classes at both Tyler School of Art and Temple University’s main campus before her mother’s sudden illness meant leaving school to work and assist with the family business. They ultimately moved to Florida, where she met her husband in an Intro to Theater class. They now live in West Palm Beach with their daughter, cats and fish.

Contact gallery director Matt Kennedy for purchase information, press materials, or to be placed on the preview list. Click play and choose your own entry point on the video below to select from over 13 hours of real-time footage shot inside the private room at Kitten Rescue Sanctuary in Los Angeles. Just last month Los Angeles became the largest No-Kill city in the country –dediCATed to protecting Shelter Animals.

Scroll down for a gallery of the available paintings. 

Call or email the gallery to be placed on the preview list or to discuss payment and delivery options.
(323)547-3227 info@gallery30south.com