Erik Niemann - Absract Paintings

Erik uses flat metal tools to create dynamic yet elegant contemporary
abstract paintings. His paintings are quite textural and full of vivid colors.
When Erik paints, colors and patterns emerge and remind some of
abstract architectural landscapes.

Erik is a self-taught artist and began painting professionally in January
2002 while touring New Zealand for six weeks in a campervan with his
wife Jennifer. Five months later he started selling his paintings and
showing at an art gallery near San Francisco, California. Soon he knew
this was his life's purpose, to create beautiful paintings for people.

Erik has participated in over a dozen solo art shows and over sixty group
art shows. Nearly two-thirds of his paintings have been collected
throughout ten US states as well as Australia and Mexico. Three of Erik’s
paintings are on display inside the United States Embassy in Dili, East
Timor through the Art in Embassies program of the US State Department.
Erik’s painting Distant Malabar (2007) is featured in an article about
his painting process in American Artist magazine, December 2008 issue.

Excited about international philanthropy, Erik currently donates 50% of
all painting sale revenue to the East Meets West Foundation's Operation
Healthy Heart program which provides corrective surgery for Vietnamese
children with congenital heart defects.

Erik also mentors a nine year old boy from Oakland through the OreMi
Mentoring Program. Erik is an advisor to the Cal Chapter of Triangle
Fraternity. He participates in the Mankind Project, a men’s organization,
and is on the board for Peacekey, a non-profit that supports a charter
high school in Richmond, California. Erik also co-coordinates the San
Francisco Chapter of the University of Kansas Alumni Association.

Erik continues to actively participate in courses with Landmark
Education for the past ten years, which he credits the Landmark Forum
for meeting his wife Jennifer, creating his art career, and being able to
participate powerfully in teams of people and leadership possessions. In
2003, Erik and Jennifer self-published a book about their thirty-five
country “grand adventure” journey, Chasing Summer: Exploring the
World on an 18-month Honeymoon.

In October 2009 Erik participated in the 7th Annual Monastir
International Art Festival in Monastir, Tunisia. Erik was one of three
American artists participating with seventy other international artists,
created three paintings each that will contribute to a future
contemporary art museum in Monastir, Tunisia. See pictures of the trip
here.

Erik was born in 1971 in Modesto, California, United States. He studied
architecture in California, the University of Kansas, the Danish Institute for
Study Abroad in Copenhagen, and graduate studies at the
Architectural Association in London, England.