Wesley Ericson (b. 2001, Cincinnati, Ohio) is an oil painter and community artist. His training began through Artworks Cincinnati apprenticeships, where he received the 2019 Biggie Award, and through the City of Cincinnati's Youth to Work programs. He later worked with artists in Cincinnati and South America, including Caro Cuervo, who curated his 2023 group show with R.A.R.O in Buenos Aires, and Lorena Torres, whose Bogotá studio he assisted in 2024 as his focus on oil painting solidified. Trained in trauma-responsive care, he led over 20 youth apprentices in completing a 3,000 sq ft mural in South Avondale. Since 2025, he has facilitated free wellness workshops for Casa de Paz, a women's shelter, with Julia O. Bianco, creating The Heartwood Circle at Wavepool and a collaborative mural funded by a Keep Cincinnati Beautiful Safe & Clean grant. He lives and works in Cincinnati, developing a rich body of psychologically intimate oil paintings.
Artist Bio
Artist Statement
My oil paintings inhabit rooms without walls. Transparent and opaque layers accumulate while color escapes itself; once sanded down, the layers separate us from the luminous appearance of their subjects. Soft and sharp edges and iconographic forms establish associations that are both familiar and absurd, recurring as fragments of abundant internal and external landscapes. I learn and mourn distinctions between sounds, what happens between events themselves, and what melts away like footprints in sand: how imagination, expectation, and emotion alter understanding. I paint accepting uncertainty, allowing mundane occurrences to become vessels for temporary experiences that drop anchor in psychological territory. The distances between forms become as important as the forms themselves: where are the points of contact, what is being reflected, and what remains unfixed?
CV
RESIDENCIES
2026 | Camp SIBsational Artist-in-Residence (Volunteer), Elmdale KS, USA
2024-2025 | Yeruá Guest Resident Artist (self-directed), Buenos Aires, ARG
2024 | “NO TÉ VERÉ MORIR” Assistantship with Lorena Torres, BOG, Colombia
2024 | Enchanted Life , V2 Gallery 1001 Colors (formally ArtWorks), Cincinnati, USA
2023 | R.A.R.O International Residency Program
2022 | Mural Painting Residency, Proyecto’Ace, Buenos Aires, ARG
2021 | Student Power, V2 Gallery 1001 Colors (formally ArtWorks), Cincinnati, USA
2021 | The Way We See Ourselves, 1001 Colors (formally ArtWorks), Cincinnati, USA
EXHIBITIONS
2025 | JUNTAS, curated at Wavepool by Julia O. Bianco & Wesley Ericson, Cincinnati, USA
2024 | Enchanted Life , V2 Gallery 1001 Colors (formally ArtWorks), Cincinnati, USA
2023 | “Poéticas de la Existencia” Espacio Acoyte, Buenos Aires, ARG
2023 | Light, The Art Garage 513, USA
2023 | ÆQAI Fundraiser, The Annex Gallery, USA
2023 | Place Keepers Poetry Series, Urban Appalacian Community Coalition, Northern Kentucky, USA
2022 | Casting Shadows, Visionaries & Voices, Cincinnati, USA
2021 | Student Power, V2 Gallery 1001 Colors (formally ArtWorks), Cincinnati, USA
2021 | The Way We See Ourselves, V2 Gallery 1001 Colors (formally ArtWorks) Cincinnati, USA
2021 | Harvest, The Art Garage 513, USA
2019 | Teacher & Student Exhibition, Frame Shop x 1001 Colors (formally ArtWorks) Cincinnati, USA
PUBLICATIONS
2025 | Wesley Ericson’s Stories, Lessons & Insights, Bold Journey ,
USA 2024 | Meet Wesley Ericson, Stories & Insights, Canvas Rebel , USA
2023 | Cartoon for Peace, Responsibility, SOS ART, Cincinnati, USA
2023 WAAC literary magazine , The Art Academy of Cincinnati, USA
GRANTS & AWARDS
2025 | Safe & Clean Grant, City of Cincinnati & Keep Cincinnati Beautiful, Cincinnati OH, USA
2019 | Biggie Award, Artworks Cincinnati, Cincinnati OH, USA
EDUCATION
no BFA | Miami University, Oxford, USA
2018–2022 | ArtWorks Apprentice, Cincinnati OH USA