Erik Lindman: Perceval — Erik Lindman

Peter Blum Gallery is pleased to present Perceval, a solo exhibition of paintings and etchings by New York-based artist Erik Lindman (b. 1985), marking his third exhibition with the gallery. The exhibition continues Lindman's ongoing investigation into the possibilities of painting and the expressive potential of printmaking. Exploring the relationship between two and three-dimensional forms, he exploits the physical properties of materials to generate new ways of seeing and experiencing the world.

Working at the intersection of painting, collage, and sculpture, Lindman has developed a distinctive visual language. Blurring the boundaries between abstraction and representation, material and image, figure and ground are his focus. Incorporating found materials such as canvas webbing and other discarded surfaces, the artist constructs richly layered compositions in which color, texture, and gesture give rise to unexpected forms. "The built-up surface directs the development of the work," the artist explains. "Central figures emerge from monochromatic fields, creating a dynamic interplay between figure and ground."

This exhibition takes its title from the Arthurian legend of Perceval, the young knight whose search for the Holy Grail becomes a journey of discovery and transformation. Drawing from the medieval Grail legend and its subsequent interpretations in literature and opera, Lindman identifies with the figure of the young knight who ventures into an unfamiliar world without fully understanding the challenges that await him. "The painter of modern life must be a holy fool," the artist writes, invoking Perceval as a metaphor for the openness and uncertainty inherent in artistic creation.

Since 2021, Lindman has incorporated traditional weavings from Rättvik, Sweden, his father's hometown, into his paintings. He tears the textiles into irregular fragments and adheres them to linen canvases, building layers of paint around and over their surfaces. Rooted in the region's folk-art traditions, these materials establish a connection to his paternal heritage, one that has taken on new significance as Lindman has navigated his own experience of fatherhood over the past five years. Reflecting on this period, Lindman writes, "Never busier, my hours in the studio are that much more focused and cherished. My strokes are more open, vulnerable, less qualified.”

Yet Lindman is less interested in preserving these textiles as artifacts than in what they might become through painting. Their woven textures and patterns inform the compositions, while their physical presence introduces a tension between the handmade and the painterly. In Perceval I (2026), a densely layered assemblage of golden yellow, turquoise, and violet rises against a deep black ground. Fragments of woven material, thick applications of pigment, and irregular, frayed edges converge into a form that appears at once monumental and precarious, its verticality suggesting an architectural structure or a figure in the process of taking shape. The contrast between the dark, expansive background and the intricately worked surface heightens the physical presence of the materials, allowing the composition to hover between image and object.

In other works, such as Perceval V and Perceval VI (both 2026), Lindman adopts a more restrained composition, allowing vivid concentrations of color and texture to emerge against pale, flesh-toned backgrounds. These forms suggest figures, fragments of landscapes, or natural formations, although they never settle into anything immediately recognizable. Some appear to hover above the painted ground; others seem embedded within it. Lindman's attention to scale, cropping, and negative space lends the compositions an unexpected sense of depth, even as their heavily worked surfaces insist on their physical presence.

Framing this exhibition is a new suite of Perceval Etchings, developed during Lindman's residency as Publishing Artist at the Lower East Side Printshop in New York. Working in collaboration with master printer Nathan Catlin, the artist employed a variety of intaglio techniques to create impressions of the traditional weavings that have become central to his paintings. Welcoming the resistance he faced translating these organic forms, Lindman demonstrates his facility with an array of mediums, leaving open exciting pathways for future exploration, much like the unfinished story of the young knight in Chrétien de Troyes’ epic poem.

Erik Lindman (b. 1985, New York, NY) lives and works in New York, NY. He earned his BA from Columbia University, New York, NY (2007). Lindman was a Publishing Artist in Residence at Lower East Side Printshop (2025); honored at the Hirshhorn Museum’s Artist x Artist Gala (2019); received The Louis Sudler Prize for Excellence in the Arts, Columbia University (2007); and received the Ellen B. Stoeckel Fellowship for Yale Norfolk School of Art (2006). His work has been included in exhibitions at the Kunsthalle Friart Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL; White Columns, New York, NY; le 109, Nice, France; Kaviar Factory, Henningsvær, Norway; Scully Tomasko Foundation, Tappan, NY; and Foundation Hippocrène, Paris, France; among others. Selected collections include Foundation Louis Vuitton, Paris, France; Danjuma Collection, London, UK; Syz Collection, Geneva, Switzerland; Kaviar Factory, Henningsvær, Norway; and Peter Marino Art Foundation, Southampton, NY; among others.