Featured Artist

Eric Zeigler is an artist, designer, and researcher whose current work involves photography and the unconventional transformation of images. He received an MFA in Photography from the San Francisco Art Institute and exhibits his work nationally and internationally. Recently his work has been exhibited at the CICA Museum in Seoul, South Korea, and the NIDA International Photography Symposium in Nida, Lithuania and he received an Individual Excellence Award from the Ohio Arts Council in 2021. Zeigler also writes about human tool use and its connection to contemporary design, as well as non-Anthropocentric ecological viewpoints. Zeigler is an Assistant Professor of Art in the Department of Art at the University of Toledo. He created and runs the Art Print Center which serves as a hub for all digital artwork production by university students, faculty, and local artists.

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Artist Statement

My artistic research focuses on the pressures between representation and reality through the creation and dissemination of imagery. I create photographic images that purposefully exploit the problematic contemporary western cultural categorizations and presumptions that are placed on photographic and lens-based imagery. I photograph the world — the world I can see, as well as the public domain — and create sculptures exclusively for the camera. The resulting images engage the viewer in the conceit and deceit of the image’s actual construction, while utilizing well known methods of seductive image creation. I also collaborate with other artists, like Brian Carpenter, and scientists in my work. My most recent black and white work was made in collaboration with ecologist, Aaron M. Ellison.

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