Biography
Born in 1948, Eike Erzmoneit grew up during the rebuilding of post-war Berlin, and in the shadow of the Berlin wall, escaped to London in 1973 where he qualified as a dental technician before following his love of music and becoming a professional drummer. This move coincided with the beginnings of his interest in art and he began painting and sculpting, using acrylic paint and dental engineering materials. Eike played with important bands of the progressive rock era, culminating with the chart-topping Atomic Rooster.
A feature of his work is the imagery of the wall and his fascination for exploring the idea of changing dimensions exemplified by the space analogies. Eike’s pictures explore space and time, extending the essence of his work to hand-crafted wooden frames. More often than not, the frame will fit the picture rather than the picture filling the frame. The work is not confined to a canvas. Often mundane objects take on a different aspect when modeled in acrylic and precious metals.
Eike has a passion for restoring and lending his own personal brand of artistry to classic cars. He can often be seen driving one of his collections of post-war Humbers. From a distance, a painstakingly restored original, but on closer inspection, the idiosyncratic Erzmoneit touches are everywhere, — the mascot, the horn push, the interior design.
His artwork, however, continued to dominate and overtake the other half of his creative output and his work was exhibited for the first time in 1976 in the Gallery Europa, Europa-Center Berlin.
Since then he has worked as a freelance artist in London and Berlin with regular European exhibitions. The 1990s saw Eike’s artwork exhibited in New Delhi, San Francisco, and New York.
Each of the paintings carries the Eike Erzmoneit ‘trademarks’, which feature small depictions of brick walls — and the ‘kink sausage’ among others — within permanently changing dimensions of time and light. The frames are designed to fit the unconventional shapes of the paintings.
Eike is a member of the Society for Art of Imagination.