“Swiss Landscapes” evokes the panoramas encountered while travelling along the roads of the cantons of Geneva and Vaud. This project, deliberately modest in its format, seeks to capture the essence of the mountainous landscape through varied situations: changing weather conditions, daytime and nighttime light, shifting atmospheres.
Primarily executed in oil on small formats, these paintings do not aim at a realistic or exhaustive representation, but rather at a sensitive and fragmentary grasp of the landscape. The artist favors an approach in which the essential reveals itself, without the need for faithful description.
This exploration of the “Swiss Landscape” lies at the core of his pictorial practice. It conveys an intimate vision of the world, oscillating between observation and interpretation. The works bear witness to precise moments while opening onto more abstract dimensions: how can chaos be suggested through a serene composition? How can tension and balance coexist?
Thus appear hills veiled in smoke against dark backgrounds, metallic roads signaling a latent danger, or nocturnal landscapes in which headlights become almost unreal projections. Bluish forests, luminous halos, contrast effects: all elements that construct a visual language that is both controlled and enigmatic.
Waves, glaciers, storms, droughts, mists — these motifs contribute to an uncertain atmosphere, situated in an in-between state. Some paintings evoke familiar places without ever naming them, while others introduce unexpected events, disturbing the image of an idyllic or supposedly paradisiacal landscape.
More than a realistic or photographic painting, Eric Eriston Winarto’s work is part of a research into pictorial mystery. Presented at Espace Kugler Gallery in Geneva, this body of paintings — produced in large numbers in A4 format — draws its inspiration from Swiss landscapes observed during his travels, as well as from the legacy of painters such as William Turner and Ferdinand Hodler.
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Eric Eriston Winarto is a Swiss artist, born in Kuala Lumpur on August 1, 1980. He has lived and worked in Geneva since 1995. Trained at HEAD – Geneva (University of Art and Design), he develops a pictorial practice centered on landscape, nourished by both a sensitive and conceptual reflection.
He was notably trained by his professors Claude Sandoz and Eric Corne, and was also accompanied in his journey by Roman Opalka, a major figure in contemporary painting, a friend who guided him in his work and acted as a mentor in deepening his artistic approach.
His work is part of a research into the perception of the world, where landscape becomes a space for both plastic and poetic experimentation. The observation of reality engages in dialogue with a more inner and meditative approach to the image.
“Landscape is my only possible ground to express the immensity of the world, of life, of our destiny. The poetic image is also the result of this confrontation with the landscape. Without landscape, I sometimes struggle to bring forth a poetic image… Landscape remains for me a boundless mysterious territory.”
— Excerpt from an interview, Revue Aller-retour de l’Artothèque d’Angers, no. 2, February 2016
His work has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions in Switzerland and internationally, notably in Basel (Laleh June Gallery), Geneva, Lausanne, Paris, Frankfurt and Münster. He notably presented a solo show at Phillips Auction in Geneva.
He has exhibited in institutions, galleries and independent spaces such as Analix Forever (Geneva), Halle Nord, Charlotte Moser Gallery, Metropolis Gallery (Paris), and Hübner + Hübner (Frankfurt).
He has also participated in several international art fairs, including Art Paris, Art Brussels, Drawing Now Paris, Art Stage Singapore, Singapore Art Fair, and Kunst Zürich.
His career is marked by collaborations and institutional support, notably from Pro Helvetia and the Fonds Municipal d’Art Contemporain (FMAC).