Eric Dever: Points of Interest

3 July - 15 August 2025
Berry Campbell Gallery is pleased to announce its fourth exhibition of paintings by contemporary artist Eric Dever. Eric Dever: Points of Interest is an exploration into the temporal dimensions of plant life and the ecological impact of climate change. Dever lives and works in Water Mill, New York, and often looks to his studio garden for inspiration. His “points of interest” further extend to Water Mill’s surrounding watershed, regional travel to arboretums and botanical gardens, nature reserves, and notable historic vistas, reflecting a sustained engagement with natural and cultivated environments.
 
Eric Dever’s paintings teeter between representation and abstraction balancing these two modalities with ease. In some works, Dever renders botanical forms in clear frontal depictions that are immediately recognizable; in others, plant forms dissolve into expansive abstractions that appear to spill over the edge of the canvas. This interplay of styles unfolds across the nineteen works in this exhibition, many of which are Dever’s largest and most ambitious paintings to date.
 
As Dr. Giovanni Aloi states in the exhibition catalogue: “In Eric Dever’s paintings, time is neither background nor metaphor: it is substance. Just as the garden stages a choreography of slow unfolding, Dever’s canvases are accumulations of temporal gestures, each brushstroke a pulse in the continuum of material and spiritual becomings.”
 
Eric Dever recently had a painting acquired by the Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, New York, which was included in The Rains are Changing Fast: Acquisitions in Context. He was also included in Seeing Red: From Renoir to Warhol at the Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn Harbor, New York, along with Parrish Perspectives curated by Alicia Longwell at the Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, New York. Additionally, Dever has participated in the United States Art and Embassies program loaning paintings to Hong Kong, Macau, and Helsinki. Dr. Gail Levin and Margery Gosnell-Qua have written about Dever’s paintings, and Helen Harrison and Patrick Christiano have interviewed the artist. In recent years, Dever was the recipient of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts residency in Montauk, New York. Dever is preparing for a solo exhibition at the Greenville County Museum of Art, South Carolina, in 2026.
 
Eric Dever: Points of Interest is on view from July 3, 2025 through August 15 with a reception on Thursday, July 10, 2025 from 6 to 8 pm. Additionally, Dever will give a gallery tour as part of Berry Campbell’s participation in the Art Dealers Association (ADAA) Tribeca/Chelsea Gallery Walk on Wednesday, July 16, 2025 from 6 to 8 pm.  The talk will begin promptly at 7:15pm.