Erin Cone was born in Lubbock, Texas in 1976. From a very early age,
she loved to draw and was soon painting in watercolor and oils. After graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Painting from the University of Texas in 1998 and working briefly in the design industry, Cone began her professional fine art career at the age of 24, with her first solo show the following year. In 2002, she moved with her husband to Santa Fe, New Mexico.

In the past ten years, Cone has had fifteen solo shows and participated in more than a dozen group shows from New York to California. Cone's work is in numerous private and corporate collections throughout the U.S. and Europe. She continues to enjoy critical acclaim for her uniquely bold take on figurative realism.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT:

I emphasize visual impact over narrative context, focusing on the subtle orchestration of my subject within a framework of design. I create a deliberate push-and-pull between near-photorealistic detail and my own vocabulary of visual glitches that challenge that very realism. This duality is central to my work and allows the figures I paint to remain wholly representational while functioning abstractly — evoking emotion without defining it.

SELECTED PRESS:
  • Featured in New American Paintings (Vol. 90), Oct/Nov 2010
  • Featured in Poets and Artists Magazine, August 2010; Cover artist
  • Featured in American Art Collector Magazine, September 2008
  • Featured in Southwest Art Magazine's September 2008 Emerging Artist
         issue as a "Success Story"; Cover artist
  • Featured in Art Calendar Magazine, January 2008; Cover artist
  • Reviewed in American Art Collector Magazine, October 2006; Cover artist
  • Reviewed in Marin Magazine, October 2006
  • Featured in Southwest Art Magazine's November 2005 – “Face Time:
         Artist’s Self-portraits”
  • Featured in Art & Antiques Magazine’s Summer 2005-2006 Insider’s Guide
  • Featured in Santa Fean Magazine's June 2005 Special Art Issue as
         one of Santa Fe's "Five Artists to Watch"
  • Featured in Southwest Art Magazine's September 2003 "21 Under 31" -
         as one of the top emerging artists under thirty-one years of age.