Eric Overton is an American artist whose work explores the relationship between process and human purpose. Working in sculpture and photography, he examines themes of time, labor, and our relationship with the natural world.
Artist Statement
My work is concerned with process and the ways we find meaning through what we do. I am interested in the relationship between work and purpose, and how acts of labor, creation, and service shape our lives and the world around us. The value of these pursuits lies not merely in what they produce, but in the act of doing.
I work in sculpture and photography, drawing from the human figure, the natural world, and the surrounding landscapes of the American West. My subjects often reflect the physical and emotional dimensions of work, from agricultural stewardship and craftsmanship to the simpler acts of observation and preservation. I am interested in the effort, repetition, and passage of time through which people and places are transformed.
The physical processes of sculpture and photography are an extension of these ideas. Modeling clay, casting bronze, and making photographs require time, attention, and a sustained engagement with the subject. Through these processes, I am interested not only in what is created, but in how the experience of creating shapes our understanding of its meaning.
Ultimately, I use the process of making to investigate why making matters.
Biography
Eric Overton is an American artist whose work explores the relationship between process and human purpose. Working in sculpture and photography, he examines themes of time, labor, and our relationship with the natural world.
His practice encompasses figurative and conceptual bronze sculpture, contemporary photography, and nineteenth-century wet plate collodion. Drawing from the human figure, the natural world, and the landscapes of the American West, Overton is interested in the processes through which people create, transform, and engage with their surroundings. His work considers the significance of effort, craftsmanship, stewardship, and the passage of time, with particular attention to the meaning found in the act of doing.
Raised in the American West, Overton developed an early interest in photography and the relationship between people and place. At age twenty, he worked as a photographer for Rolling Stone. He later pursued a career in medicine while continuing his artistic practice and directing documentary films. His film Collodion: The Process of Preservation reflects his longstanding interest in the relationship between process, human experience, and the natural world.
His photographic work includes Wild America, a series of wet plate collodion landscapes, alongside studies of wildlife, portraiture, and natural forms. His sculptures range from intimate studies to life-size bronze monuments, often depicting people engaged in acts of labor, service, and creation. The physical processes of modeling, casting, and image-making are themselves integral to his practice, connecting the subjects of his work to the act of making it.
Overton lives and works in Utah.
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2026 102nd Annual Spring Salon, Springville Museum of Art, Springville, Utah
2024, As the Lake Fades, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art. Salt Lake City, Utah UMOCA
2024, Lake Effect, Modern West Fine Art, Salt Lake City, Utah
2023, Formal Elements, Modern West Fine Art, Salt Lake City, Utah
2021 Earth, Modern West Fine Art, Group Artist Exhibition, Salt Lake City, Utah
2020 96th Annual Spring Salon, Springville Museum of Art, Springville, Utah
2019 Western Gothic, Altamira Fine Art, Solo Artist Exhibition, Jackson Hole, Wyoming
2019 95th Annual Spring Salon, Springville Museum of Art, Springville, Utah
2018 Monument, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Salt Lake City, Utah
2017 Wild America, Modern West Fine Art, Solo Artist Exhibition, Salt Lake City, Utah
2016 Bronze Sculpture, Group Show, MTFA Contemporary, Santa Fe, New Mexico
2014 Bronze Sculpture, Group Show, Julie Nester Gallery, Park City, Utah
2008 Selected Works & Medicine Dogs Film Screening, Le Atelier, Salt Lake City, Utah
2008 Transcribed, Installation, Body Worlds Exhibition, Traveling Exhibit
2008 Transcribed, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah
2008 Transcribed, Two Artist Exhibition, Phillips Gallery, Salt Lake City, Utah
2006 Absinthe Series, Solo Exhibition, Ampersand Gallery, Salt Lake City, Utah
2006 Shoes, Group Exhibition, La Galería Arte y Diseño, Málaga, Spain
2005 Underwater Nudes, Solo Exhibition, Ampersand Gallery, Salt Lake City, Utah
2005 Orchids, Solo Exhibition, Ampersand Gallery, Salt Lake City, Utah
2004 Oaxaca, Solo Exhibition, Ampersand Gallery, Salt Lake City, Utah
2004 Desnudos y Arquitectura, Solo Exhibition, La Galería Arte y Diseño, Málaga, Spain
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Permanent Collection: State of Utah Alice Merrill Horne Collection
Permanent Collection: University of New Mexico, CSWR UNM Libraries
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2023 Collodion: The Process of Preservation, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island
2022 Collodion: The Process of Preservation, St. John’s College, Santa Fe, New Mexico
2021 Collodion: The Process of Preservation, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
2020 Collodion: The Process of Preservation, Park City Film, Park City, Utah
2020 Collodion: The Process of Preservation, Utah Film Center, Salt Lake City, Utah
2020 Collodion: The Process of Preservation, Glimmerglass Film Days, Cooperstown, New York
2020 Collodion: The Process of Preservation, Utah Film Festival, Salt Lake City, Utah
2020 Collodion: The Process of Preservation, Newport Beach Film Festival, Newport Beach, California
2020 Collodion: The Process of Preservation, The DC Environmental Film Festival, Washington DC
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Utah filmmaker learned the value of listening while shooting Collodion, Park Record, September 24, 2020
Reset and Calibrate: Española Physician Documents Wilderness Journey in Collodion, Albuquerque Journal, September 18, 2020
The New Face of Healthcare: Utah Business Magazine, November 2018 Healthcare Heroes: Utah Business Magazine, September 2018
Into the Field, Western Art & Architecture, December 2017/January 2018 Wild America: Process & Preservation,
Lenswork, issue #130 May/June 2017 Big Nature: Eric Overton’s Photographs of National Parks, Salt Lake Magazine, May 2017
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Fine Art Connoisseur Award
102nd Springville Salon, Springville Museum of Art, 2026Best Feature Documentary Film
Collodion: The Process of Preservation, Utah Film Festival, 2020