From my perspective, a great on-site introduction to an artist comes when stepping into a solo show that really sweeps you off your feet, for that is precisely what Eric Dever (American, b. 1962) accomplished as soon as I entered Berry Campbell. The amount of times I kept my index finger to my mouth whilst making enthusiastic “Hmm!” and “Mmm!” sounds is a strong indicator of my infatuation with Dever’s paintings along with the gallery’s presentation of them. Dever is a contemporary landscape and still life painter whose compositions swell with a pulsating energy and rhythmic flow as demonstrated in his mastery of color, umbrage, perspective, and materiality.
Having seen so many types of paintings in my life, I learned that the representation of shadows is not exclusively done in shades of black, for darker purples get the job done in a far more poetic way (I became acutely aware of this with Danish painter Vilhelm Hammershøi’s interiors and self-portraits). So, too, does Dever showcase a nuanced understanding of the power of umbrage to endow a subject with a vivaciousness not confined to only illuminated subjects. Stone Pine, Villa Borghese (2025) is a terrific example of this as the tall, swaying trees in a bucolic Italian landscape almost seem like enlarged flowers bursting from the soil and allowing their leafy bulbs to embrace the open skies.
— Liam Otero, Whitehot Magazine
August 1, 2025
